I praise and thank you, Lord Jesus, that you are my Shepherd–that I personally belong to you, the Creator and Sustainer of all–because you have chosen me. I am thankful that you, in your wisdom and power, love and goodness, make sure that I lack nothing necessary.

Thank you that in my present painful relational circumstance. Even  with my failures and mistakes, you are making this situation into a green pasture for me. You command me to lie down in it because here I can grow and mature and be more useful for you.

Thank you for Psalm 23 which tells me that while I am in these difficulties you lead me to the refreshing water of your Word, that you are at work transforming my soul, and that you will lead me in paths of righteousness. These truths are certain and sure, for you always do what will bring glory to your name, you will never lead me into anything that will disgrace you.

It is so good to know how trustable you are, Lord Jesus. Your wisdom is wonderful, your faithfulness is fabulous, your love is lavish, and your might is marvelous. Praise be to you continually, O God, for you are worthy!

Prayer: “Lord Jesus, help me to live in the truth that you are my Shepherd, that I lack nothing, no matter how it appears to me. Help me to trust you and stay where you put me, painful as it may be. Help me to be thankful for all you’ve given and to reject the tendency to complain about not having all I desire. Amen.”

“For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.” 1 Corinthians 1:18

This verse was just what I needed to hear. In the Middle East, where we lived for many years, as well as back in America, I have found myself trying to make the gospel more acceptable, more respectable, more comfortable for people to accept—but to no avail.

To those who do not believe, the pure gospel can never be attractive or easy to accept, for it is foreign, unnatural, even repulsive. To think of themselves as so sinful that they need a Savior, to think of God Himself dying on a cross in their place, to think of surrender to Him and having a total change of life as a result—this is more than they want to hear! And we experienced this directly this week. We went an invited  about 20 of our neighbors to a Discovery Bible study—but no one came!

Facing this truth of man’s natural rejection of the gospel throws me back to dependence on God, on the Holy Spirit’s work, thereby saving me from dependence on myself—I cannot convince anyone to believe, only God can do that. It also frees me to go ahead and share without being controlled by fear of rejection.

As the King’s heralds, we will be rejected by many listeners, but that must not stop our proclamation of Truth, unpalatable as it may be to unbelievers. “God has chosen the foolish things…the weak things…the base…the despised…the things which are counted as nothing…that no flesh should glory in His presence” (1Cor. 1:27-29).

So, we are sharing, sowing seed and looking for those whom God has prepared for the next step in their spiritual journey. What freedom there is in knowing that we are joining Him in His reaching out to the world. To be committed to the Lord of the universe, seeking to cooperate with Him in what He is doing, knowing that He will guide and lead us to those He’s already working in—these are wonderful privileges and fear-killing truths. We can trust the One who said His Spirit is at work convicting all of sin, righteousness and judgment. He will bring forth fruit at the right time as we faithfully follow Him.

More on the illustration of the spiral staircase.

Each problem that comes to us has the potential to be a burden or to be the next step up, moving us upward and onward in our walk with Jesus. The key is our response to it. As Psalm 50:23 says, “He who offers the sacrifice of thanksgiving [giving thanks by faith when we don’t feel like it] honors me, and opens the way that I may show him the salvation of the Lord.” Praise and thanksgiving given out of faith as acts of the will, not the emotions, are powerful transformers of problems and sins into the next step up.

As we spiral up the staircase, we will have to deal with the same weaknesses of our character over and over. Satan will say, “Look, you aren’t making any progress; you might as well just give in and surrender to this temptation. Enjoy this sin!” The truth is, however, that we aremaking progress, for each time we encounter the same sins we are on a higher level; and the answer is the same as before: praise God for the revelation, apply truth in obedience and repentance, and step up.

As you read through these devotionals, which are presented in the approximate order in which they were originally written in my journal or prayer letters, you will see the upward spiral. Themes will be repeated, each time from a little different perspective. You will sense growth, movement, maturing. Hopefully this will help you, too, to move upward in your journey with Jesus, making each problem, each difficulty, each suffering and each hardship the next step up.

Prayer: “Lord, help me to cooperate with you as you desire to lead me on to higher levels. Help me to think as you think, to become a person of praise, turning problems into progress. Amen.”

“Why are you downcast, O my soul? Why so disturbed within me? Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise him, my Savior and my God.”  Psalm 43:5

Written in the 1990s. The world is an increasingly dangerous place, and at the moment it is becoming potentially more dangerous from confrontations with Iraq and North Korea. Is there any safe place left? As the US prepares to invade Iraq, think of those living in the countries around Iraq and how unsettled they must feel, to say nothing of the Iraqis themselves!

What should our response as believers be to such a situation; what if you were living in a country bordering Iraq, as we are at the moment, well within the range of Saddam’s missiles?

Certainly Satan would like us to worry and fret: his three major weapons are lies and fear, along with violence. But our weapons are more powerful: Truth, Faith and Love. Psalm 91 gives us some definite perspective here.

Verse 2 says: “I will say of the Lord, ‘He is my refuge.’” Picture Him drawing you onto his lap where you are safe and dearly loved.

He is “My fortress.” Picture a huge, solid castle wall surrounding you, keeping the enemy out.

“My God in whom I trust.” Picture a mighty and glorious being, standing there protecting you; He is so big that all you can see is the bottom of his big toe! No one can get to us without His permission. We are absolutely safe with Him no matter how things appear. Our eyes need to be lifted from the situation to God: He is the Almighty Ruler, the One who has never been defeated and never will be.

And so it turned out as God protected us from Sadam Huseyien’s missiles and other threats. And so He will protect us today, for He is still our refuge and Fortress, our God in whom we can trust. Our job is to trust. Can we do that?

An incident that happened 20 years ago in our Middle Eastern country.

It was late evening. A local believer, Earl and an expat worker stood looking at the mess: paint splashed on the walls, windows broken, the furniture and curtains a charred mass in the center of the room and water damage from the fire department. After two weeks of getting the newly rented building ready to serve as a church, this was disheartening, especially since it was the second such attack.

Then, hearing a noise, Earl turned to see a hulking fellow step into the room. The newcomer began uttering threats, his slurred speech showing that he was at least partially drunk. He then pulled out a knife to back up his words. Earl and the worker were able to disarm the man and hailed a passing police car, which took the attacker to the local police station.

They went, too, to give a statement to the police. The attacker told the captain that Earl had called him in and offered him $100 to become a Christian; this had made him so mad that he took Earl’s knife to threaten him! The police captain not only believed the attacker, but said he would crush Earl and what he was trying to accomplish in starting a church! And in the end the police did just that.

Such situations must be looked at from a Scriptural viewpoint. As Psalm 91 tells us, God will protect us from true harm, His faithfulness is our shield. However, we must realize that God’s definition of harm may be different than ours, that is, harm in His mind is what will damage us spiritually.

Suffering can be good rather than harm. “Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance…” (Jam. 1:2-3) The untrained runner can never expect to do well. We need to trust, pray and act in wisdom in response to suffering, disappointments and losses

Prayer: “Lord help me today to look to you in the difficulties that come, to praise you for what you are going to do whether it lines up with my desires or not. Be glorified today in my trust of you through praise. Amen”