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Give It To Him

Give all your worries and cares to God, for he cares about you.
1 Peter 5:7 NLT

I met a man at breakfast this morning who mentioned that he was about to go home and read his Bible.

Excited to be sitting with him at the counter in our little neighborhood diner (and looking forward to some good conversation about The Word) — I asked what book of the Bible he was reading in currently. He said that he had already read through the New Testament four times this year. I thought that maybe he misheard me, so I asked again which book of the Bible he was currently reading.

He said that he had just started reading Revelation, so I mentioned that I really love the advice that is given to each of the seven churches — and he looked at me with a blank stare as if I was speaking a different language. But again, I wondered if maybe he just hasn’t heard me properly.

Then he said that he really loves the book of John, so I commented that is one of my favorite books too, because John speaks the gospel from the heart of things. He then replied that he “doesn’t like the parts where John was bragging”. So I asked if he meant the parts where John referred to himself as the disciple that Jesus loved. He confirmed that is what he meant and said “that was bragging because Jesus loved all the disciples equally and John shouldn’t think that He loved him and not the others”. I responded that it always seemed to me to be a reference from John not necessarily cutting down anyone else but simply genuinely praising God for how close and loved Jesus made him feel personally. I couldn’t really tell if he agreed or not on my perspective, but I was still excited to be talking about The Word with a fellow believer.

He then said that he really likes 1 Samuel, and I agreed that is such a good book also. I commented how I really loved how Samuel himself doesn’t show the huge character flaws that we see in most people in the Bible, and how he was consecrated from birth and served God very faithfully in the Biblical account (other than his children not following in his ways). I commented how I had lived the prodigal life until the gospel and the Lord’s mercy drew me back home to learn about things like salvation, sanctification, the work of the Holy Spirit, and God’s Kingdom. I mentioned how I’d rather my daughter live a wise life serving God more like Samuel’s example rather than having to learn everything the hard way before realizing that God’s way is best.

And at this point, the man’s attitude completely shifted and it was like he went on the attack.

He started asking me what my denomination was in a very confrontational way. I simply replied, “I am a Christian seeking to walk in The Way.” To which he pressed me again on what denomination I was. I replied that I love and have friends and pastor friends in many different denominations and care for them all equally. He pressed me again, and I tried to explain to him that our family church that we attend is part of the Southern Baptist Convention, but that I also enjoy sometimes visiting friends’ churches that are Pentacostal, Episcopal, Methodist, Presbyterian, etc.

But he didn’t seem to be listening and directly accused me of “forsaking the assembly”. Mind you, this man didn’t know me from Adam and was doing this in the middle of a crowded restaurant. I explained that we attend church as a family regularly on Sundays and celebrate the Lord’s Day each Sunday, and that I also like to be mindful of the Sabbath, from Friday sundown to Saturday sundown and the role it plays in God’s Word. I mentioned that I thought that denominations sometimes get in the way and mentioned what the Bible says about pure and undefiled religion being to provide for orphans and widows and to not be polluted by the world. To which this man says, “Well, I wouldn’t know about that, I only believe and follow the Bible.”

It was such an odd interaction considering that I was excited thinking that I’d found a Christian brother who loves the Lord and The Word. And I ran through the conversation in my head over and over as we drove home — but eventually I had to let it go. A similar thing happened with someone on social media recently, so I want to learn from these things and understand how I might handle them better in the future.

However, like today’s verse tells us, these types of things we just have to sometimes hand over to God.

Lord, I don’t always understand. Help me to trust you. Help me to be in your will and to demonstrate your love and to have no part in this things you hate. Amen.

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Consistent not Common

The Lord is good. His mercy endures forever. His faithfulness endures throughout every generation.
Psalms 100:5 GW

Yesterday, we learned about our being persistent in our prayer.

And in discussing our persistence in prayer, we talked about how all good gifts come from God — and how His good gifts are in contrast to the things of this world that are perishing.

We learned that persistence in prayer is about receiving. Consistency is about abiding, keeping, staying. God demonstrates consistency for us in His goodness, mercy and faithfulness to us.

Another way to look at it is that persistence is striving for what we realized we wanted but did not yet have — and consistency is how we demonstrate that we still want it now that we have it. A child might be persistent about asking for a new “thing” but tire of it quickly and move onto something else. But if that enjoyment remains and they consistently use it and enjoy it year after year, it proves itself to be more valuable to them. In fact, the value may not be as conscious to them as they may still be chasing “new things”, but it’s consistent, abiding presence in their life every day demonstrates clearly to others its value.

I might ask myself, “What am I persistently seeking, and what do I carry consistently with me each day that others can see is most valuable to me?”

I have only been awake for an hour this morning, but there have already been thousands of blessings that I’ve encountered this morning:

  • I woke up healthy.
  • The sun rose.
  • The birds sang.
  • My wife woke up healthy.
  • My daughter woke up healthy.
  • Our dogs woke healthy.
  • The power, water and utilities were all on.
  • The hvac had kept the house confidante through the night.
  • Our house is still providing shelter.
  • Our toilets worked.
  • My body successfully relieved itself of yesterday’s waste to make room for today’s nutrients.
  • I have a good job that I enjoy and that challenges me.
  • Technology allowed me to restart a server (planned outside hours restart) early this morning from the confort of my bed in minutes.
  • I am loved by Almighty God the Father whose mercy provided me a way back into His arms through Jesus Christ the Son, and who provides me each day His abiding presence the the Holy Spirit.
  • My Bible App allowed me to consider, contemplate and study The Word this morning.
  • The WordPress App and connectivity across the globe allows me to share the gospel across every nation, tribe and tongue.

I got up this morning, and so many blessings were present like they are almost every morning. It might be easy to overlook them because they are “consistent” in my life, but my familiarity with these blessings doesn’t make them any less valuable or important. Even just one of these blessings not being present this morning would have impacted my day significantly.

My point is that it may take me stepping back and considering the consistency of God’s goodness that this morning’s verse mentions.

It not only reminds me of who He is, but it sets my heart and mind up in a healthy alignment in order to make contact with the day.

Yes, today will have its challenges, it’s trials, it’s temptations, and it’s struggle — but how much deeper and wider and full is the mercy and love and faithfulness of our God in blessing us every day? Amen.

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Open Door Policy

For everyone who asks, receives. Everyone who seeks, finds. And to everyone who knocks, the door will be opened.
Matthew 7:8 NLT

This section in Matthew is about prayer. It’s worth a quick read:

“Keep on asking, and you will receive what you ask for. Keep on seeking, and you will find. Keep on knocking, and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks, receives. Everyone who seeks, finds. And to everyone who knocks, the door will be opened. “You parents—if your children ask for a loaf of bread, do you give them a stone instead? Or if they ask for a fish, do you give them a snake? Of course not! So if you sinful people know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give good gifts to those who ask him.
Matthew 7:7‭-‬11 NLT

Now, admittedly when asking for things, sometimes we might be asking for stones (heavy burdens) or snakes (things dangerous to us) and not even realize that what we “WANT” is not what is actually “BEST” for us. There are times when the “good gift” is to NOT give my daughter what she thinks that she wants. This is usually when she has locked her eyes onto something and has blinders on about anything else.

When the “desires of the eyes”, “desires of the flesh”, or the “pride of life” have taken over our focus so strongly that we are asking for bad gifts — we must realize those aren’t good gifts from the Father.

1 John touches on this:

For the world offers only a craving for physical pleasure, a craving for everything we see, and pride in our achievements and possessions. These are not from the Father, but are from this world.
1 John 2:16 NLT

So I might ask myself:

Am I craving and asking for this because I think that it will bring me physical pleasure?

Am I craving and asking for this because I see it and want it (like bait in a trap)?

Am I craving and asking for this because it will make me proud to have it and show off to others that I have it?

Asking for these things is not asking for something from the Almighty, Good, Good Father but is loving this world and the things it offers us at a painful cost and price.

So we might do well to understand that asking, seeking, and knocking for such things might be the same as the prodigal demanding that the door be open for him to leave with his inheritance — rather than us asking to “come in” to what is truly a gift and blessing.

What are we discontent about today? What are we not at peace about in our lives?

Have we asked God about it?

Have we sought to have wisdom revealed to us about the situation?

Have we been persistent — persistent, not just demanding (like a Karen who didn’t get their way)?

Lord, you know what we truly need before we even ask. Thank you for being a faithful and good Father who always gives good gifts. Help us to see farther than our eyes, our hands and our mouths — to recognize the many blessings and the true treasures that aren’t of this world. Thank you. Amen.

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Above All Else

Guard your heart above all else, for it determines the course of your life.
Proverbs 4:23 NLT

Today’s verse comes from chapter 4 of the book of Proverbs. This chapter is “A Father’s Wise Advice”, so it seems quite fitting to be mentioned after having just celebrated Father’s Day this past weekend.

I want to focus this morning on the phrase “above all else”.

It seems that when giving or receiving advice that we should pay most attention to the phrase “above all else”. As long as it isn’t over used (there should really only be one “above all else” if used properly) it should be effective in highlighting THE most important thing, ONE most important thing, a SINGLE most important thing.

And here, we see what that is — our heart, that we should guard it “above all else”.

It is our heart that is either surrendered to God in trust and in gratitude and respect (and yes, even in “Godly fear” like we studied yesterday) — our that is hardened to only be led by our own feelings and desires. When surrendered, we can stand firm and walk straight ahead, because there is One Way along the narrow path that leads us through an abundant life of purpose. But when we are blown back and forth by temptations, circumstances, and our own personal feelings and desires, we will waste so much effort and lose so much progress.

I read recently that with runners, swimmers, and other athletes, that any energy spent moving outside the plane of their intended travel is completely wasted and steals from their capability (for example, arms flailing out to the sides while running instead of pulling efficiently back and forth in the direction of travel). In sports science for professional athletes, they will even take videos of the athletes in action in order to identify the motions that are counterproductive towards improving their progress. Athletes must be single minded with a singular purpose and put all effort in that direction in order to reach their full capabilities and continue to break their own personal best records.

And this is so true of our lives, my friends. We must guard our hearts because this is the engine that will drive our everything today.

Do we not fully believe and trust in God and the fatherly wisdom that He has provided in The Word? Then we should decide today fully whether or not we will run this rave, whether or not we will follow in The Way. Because we are heading somewhere with our choices, decisions, words, and actions today — and it will influence and impact more than just ourselves. It matters.

Lord, help us today to be mindful of the critical importance of guarding our hearts, of choosing to believe and trust you, because it determines not only our day, but the direction of our lives. In Jesus Christ’s name we pray. Amen.

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My Father’s Day is Today

The Lord is like a father to his children, tender and compassionate to those who fear him.
Psalms 103:13 NLT

This past Sunday was Father’s Day and my wife, my daughter and I celebrated at home and at church together as a family. Since my parents have moved 4 hours away to the beach, and since both of my grand fathers have passed, and since my inlaws didn’t do the normal Saturday get together with all their kids and grands – it has been a bit different this year. There seems to be “a new normal” in much of our lives these days as we adjust to post-pandemic changes and losses of loved ones.

This is a sweet time with my daughter, as she grows into a pre-teen and still enjoys time with us — even as she starts paying more attention to the things that young people eventually are more interested in. It is wonderful that our relationship is so close and healthy that I can be tender and compassionate with her and that I don’t have to breach the peace in order to insure her attention. So I spend these years trying to lay the ground work about important topics that will come later in her life. We speak together now, so that hopefully I have to tell a little less later on. She has many lessons to learn in life and I tell her that I’ll still respect her whether she chooses the hard way of learning lessons on her own or the wise way of learning from our advice and God’s Word.

The Lord has taught me that being a good father is about the character and fruit that our children’s lives will produce in this world, and being engaged enough in their lives to apply the right nutrients to their soil. If she is flourishing, she may just need acknowledgement of her progress today and preparation for tomorrow as a daily treatment to basically check for weeds and enjoy her beautiful growth. If life’s circumstances are testing her — weeds, bugs, and sickness are starting to wear her down — encouragement, assistance, and commitment to work through it together is helpful. And in seasons where those things have hurt her growth, correction is necessary — even pruning things away from her life that are dangerous might be necessary. All of these things look very different, but when applied in the right timing they are all loving and helpful.

It is the same with the Lord’s love for us. If we have a healthy respect and fear of God, we can trust that His Word is not a burdensome set of rules to measure and judge ourselves and others — but is tender and compassionate and wise advise to help us live an abundant life, serve others well, and reveal God’s presence to an otherwise unaware world.

Our Father has made us in His image and has offered wisdom and love to lead us through today better prepared — if we will listen, if we will truly hear, if we will believe, if we will value His Word, and if we will follow in His Way.

And each of us will choose…

Thank you for being a great Father, Lord. Help us to be wise children and not so foolish as we have been in the past. And help us to share your wisdom not just in our words, but what we teach those around us in how we live. Let our lives be a living testimony that you are with us, and that it is you alive in us that proves The Way so that they too might walk with You. Amen.

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May the Word of the Lord be your help.

There are many different ways to translate the greeting from Boaz to his workers from Ruth 2:4, but I really do like this from John Gill’s exposition of the Bible where he references the Targum as “May the Word of the Lord be your help.” Wikipedia explains that the point of a targum is that “A targum was an originally spoken translation of the Hebrew Bible that a professional translator would give in the common language of the listeners when that was not Hebrew.” For those of us who aren’t fluent in Hebrew and don’t understand the original language, context and customs — preachers, expositions, Bible translations into our common language, and targums are very helpful to help us understand. In fact, our very lives are meant to be targums in a way — bringing the Word of God that is foreign and not understandable to a lost person close enough and familiar enough to them through is that they might encounter the Lord.

It was then that Boaz came back from Bethlehem and said to the reapers, “The Lord be with you!” And they answered him, “The Lord bless you!”
Ruth 2:4 AMP

Boaz greeted his workers in a familiar way that brought God glory and allowed them to in return give God glory as well. And he didn’t just give God glory in his words, but also in how he lived.

Truly, there is no help better for us than the Word of God. That is the truth for this life and for the eternal. We can find no better help than the Living Word of God being with us and helping us and guiding us through our day. I pray we know this, we believe this, and we live this in such a tangible way that it compels a response from others that also glorifies God today. Amen!

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His Presence

Scripture: “Where shall I go from your Spirit? Or where shall I flee from your presence?” Psalm 139:7

This morning, as I read my morning devotional, I wondered and contemplated God’s presence in my life and my own presence and influence in the lives around me.

I am changing jobs and we just officially notified the rest of my team yesterday of my resignation in a wonderfully complimentary email from my supervisor. And I’ll get to attend a celebration dinner next week where six of us will be recognized for work “above and beyond” on a recent project. And many coworkers have reached out to me personally with thanks and well wishes. Each one of these is special and valuable to me because of the relationship that it represents. We have been in each other’s presence daily, serving each other — and even loving each other and building community together.

God goes with me everywhere that I travel. He has been with me at this job, and He will be with me at the next. I am not always aware of His presence and His influence, because many times I get “busy”, many times I get “distracted”, many times I get “tempted”, and many times I honestly just get “complacent”.

And I can get this way about the people around me as well. Sometimes I can “isolate”, instead of “going out and making disciples of the nations”. Sometimes I can get tired of doing heavy lifting and complain that I need help, rather than “bearing my cross daily for the glory of God”. Sometimes I can grumble about what others are or aren’t doing or what things need to change, rather than “being the example and leading the way”.

Honestly, it is only by the power of Christ in me that I don’t consistently get this wrong and make a complete wreck of things. And the goal isn’t just to say, “Yes, I see that I’ve fallen short in this way — thank you Jesus for forgiveness.” Undoubtedly, that is the most important thing to believe and receive when it comes to my own salvation.

But what about others?

What about those around me who need that same salvation?

What about others who are in need of hope and encouragement?

What about their seeing and knowing Good and loving Him and being blessed by His presence?

It doesn’t have to be some big, huge, religious display — listen to them, be there for them, lift the heavy work gratefully to show them the way, encourage them that they can do even more than they see you doing now, reach out to those who you may have lost touch with that might be isolated, seek out those who are in need and could benefit from your presence in their lives. I’m saying these things to myself right now — but also to you my friends. We will have an impact today because of our presence — and our exit from the lives of others will also have an impact because of our presence.

There are two questions:

1) Will our presence be a blessing and our departure be a loss, or the opposite — and why is that?

2) Will our presence clearly demonstrate our faith and the presence of God’s Holy Spirit at work within us and cause others to give God glory, or the opposite — and why is that?

If our life is not generating the type of fruit that we would like it to, maybe we need to truly repent, truly surrender our lives to the Lord, truly trust Him, truly enter into His presence, and be healed, restored, and renewed. This isn’t some once upon a time thing, but is an ongoing, active relationship with the Almighty Living God, made possible by the Blood of the Lamb.

Do we need to enter into His presence today?

Yes we do.

Amen.

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Hear & Obey

The life that pleases God is not a set of religious duties; it is to hear His voice and obey His word.

Richard Foster, Celebration of Discipline

A friend from a church where we used to attend shared a 40 Days of Lent devotional with me via the YouVersion Bible app: 40 Daily Devotionals for Lent

Today’s devotional included this wonderful quote from Richard Foster that was such an encouraging, “Yes!” moment for me.

Yesterday, I had the day off of work, and Mia, my daughter, was out of school as well. So we spent the day together– playing with the puppies at our house — meeting Mandee, my wife, for Mia’ first ever lunch at Ike’s Korner Grill — visiting Milliken to feed the ducks, geese, and lone pigeon — going to Frankie’s Fun Park to play video games and drink Icees — and even grabbing a Caramel Coconut Cookie milkshake at Bruster’s. The rain kept us from enjoying what we thought would be Mia’s first time in the batting cages and from a trip to Carowinds that evening — but we changed directions and headed home to play Mario Party instead.

As my gas light came on, Mia said “There’s a Sphinx station right up here” and I immediately asked “How did you know that?” Because we were in a different town and in an area where I know that she has never been before. I knew that there was a Sphinx station ahead because 15 years ago I used to work in that area. But there was no way that she could have known that herself.

The situation offered the opportunity for me to tell her how I feel like the Holy Spirit whispers things to me that help me so many times in my life that might make people think that I’m wise, or insightful, or thoughtful, or talented — but I think that it is primarily that I’m willing to hear and obey. It is an odd thing to try and explain without sounding a bit crazy — so I just shared it with her and accepted that whether it helped her now or later in life, it is important for me to share with her regularly the differences between religious duties/traditions/dogma versus an active abiding in the Holy Spirit of God.

The same thing happened recently when we had our 1 year old Maltipoo puppy at the vet office after she was very sick, not eating, not drinking water, not urinating, and eventually throwing up blood. I had recently changed the thermostat in my wife’s vehicle. As careful as we had been to insure the dogs couldn’t get to any of the antifreeze, my immediate fear was that she had somehow gotten to some of it. As I lay hands on the little pup and prayed for healing — and then as I pray aloud and sobbing with my wife that God not let my foolishness be the reason for my little girl’s broken heart (if anything we’re to happen to her dog because of my actions) — I let peace wash over me. We took the pup to the vet and as we sat waiting for the blood test results, my wife said, “Maybe it’s pancreatitus?” And when the vet returned later and said Pancreatitus (not antifreeze poisoning) — I asked my wife how she knew that and she didn’t know.

Side Note: Even though the vet was wanting to hospitalize Olive for pancreatitus, we took her home and nursed her back to health, and she is now 100% recovered. Thank you Jesus!

I’m not going to make out like we’re perfect and holy and “more in tune with God” and that’s why we’re blessed. But I’m also not going to ignore the fact that even though we are imperfect — that there truly is something about the Blood of the Lamb washing us clean and allowing us the opportunity to hear and obey that brings us blessing that is beyond what I believe we would accomplish in our own.

“I will meditate on your precepts and fix my eyes on your ways.” 

Psalm 119:15

Lord, thank you for calling us by name. Thank you for speaking wisdom and truth to us. Please heal our hearts, open our ears to hear you, and open our eyes to see clearly that obedience truly is for our best. Help us to hear and obey. Thank you for the opportunity to sing your praise and give you the glory for every good gift. Amen.

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Gang Rape and Incest?

There is no way to get around it, Genesis 19 is a tough chapter to walk through. It starts out with a very disturbing passage on the topic of a community where gang rape seems to be either normalized, or at least a systemic and common occurrence.

For most of us, not having the ability to refuse sexual advances from others would seem very odd. But even today, there are many people trapped in the sex trafficking trade that deal with rape and gang rape and who have no expectation that they would get to choose or refuse those who press hard against their door. No matter how foreign or uncomfortable this situation might be compared to our own sheltered experiences — or how painful it might be in comparison to personal experiences of molestation, rape, etc. — we mustn’t ignore that this type of exploitation and injustice carries an especially challenging burden.

For victims of these types of crimes against humanity, it is especially hard to not wish for vengeance for your oppressors instead of pursuing for their forgiveness. And we can see that even God’s patience with such wickedness (and great suffering caused to others others) has limits.

The culmination of this chapter, where they have been delivered from this place and culture of sexual slavery but how it clearly has an impact on how the children grow up normalized to the idea of incest is also hard to stomach for most of us living with first world problems.

To think that this is an outrageous and far fetched situation is to ignore what many poor, oppressed and victimized people deal with today. We who are reading daily Christian devotionals in the comfort of our homes and jobs may not have the particular threat of gang rape and incest pressing to break into our house. But lust, pornography, sexual perversions, adultery and all kinds of temptations would love to set the standards of our family closer and closer to Sodom and Gomorrah one generation at a time until sin is normalized and things like gang rape and incest aren’t even shocking or uncommon.

It is not so far fetched to imagine a society that starts out punishes those in court who refuse to glorify and normalize sexual perversion — moving (if unchecked) to the point of forcing acts of sexual perversion upon unwilling participants.

So we must remember the grace that our God has extended us, seek how we might help, encourage and introduce those enslaved to the trappings of sexual sin to the Way, the Truth, and the Life. And we must not hesitate to run from such things when they endanger our family — especially when the Lord makes it clear that we must turn away without looking back.

Each of us has something that we need to lay down and never pick up again. Each of us has something small that we could surrender that might seem harmless at first but could grow beyond our control and wreck our lives if left to multiply like a cancer. Let’s recognize the warning in this passage, turn away from sin, turn to God before what we “put up with” has very real consequences for our children and those we love. Amen.

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HaShem – the Name

In my last study notes, I was looking at the various names we see given, received and used for God by various individuals. This was initiated because of the difference in the names Hagar and Abraham had for God in Genesis chapters 16 & 17. But now we come to chapter 18, and we see the tetragammon יְהֹוָה in use to describe God in this chapter.

What is quite interesting about the tetragammon יְהֹוָה is that while modern Christian Bibles will simply translate it as LORD, this particular proper name for God is a bit unique. The original Hebrew for this proper name of God was just consonants — and didn’t even include vowels to help one understand from its being written how it might be properly pronounced.

And some Jewish translations wouldn’t even write or speak the tetragammon יְהֹוָה, for fear of violating the third commandment to not take the Lord’s name in vain. They might use the word HaShem השם‎ instead as a less formal description, which simply means “the Name”. Common substitutions in Hebrew for this proper name are Adonai (“My Lord”) or Elohim (literally “gods” but treated as singular when meaning “God”) in prayer, or HaShem (“The Name”) in everyday speech.

You can get an idea of the use of HaShem from this Jewish translation to English that you might compare side by side with your own English translation that probably uses LORD: https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/bereishit-genesis-chapter-18

While there is plenty of public disagreement today over whether יְהֹוָה should be pronounced “Yahweh” or “Jehovah” (or many other variations) — the original people given this name were so respectful of it that they hesitated to even consider writing or saying it. This is something that I fear many of us today might overlook or not rightly understand today — that deep awe and reverence towards the proper use and handling of the name of God. (In a world filled with “MF this” and “GD that” commonly tolerated in public, on television, and all over the Internet — it may be best that we don’t hear the tetragammon יְהֹוָה being dropped in pop music just to gain some notoriety and make a little more money.)

We will find all kinds of names in the Bible for God if we keep looking. And if you look to each person and their need, you will see God’s unique and personal name associated with them and their stories. And while it is good to know someone else’s story and get introduced to God through their faith secondhand — I would say that there is a greater value in knowing personally and closely the intimate and personal name that your betrothed would share with you firsthand.

There is no argument that the world is given only one name by which salvation is given, and only one name above all names — Jesus:

Therefore, God elevated him to the place of highest honor and gave him the name above all other names, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue declare that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
Philippians 2:9‭-‬11 NLT

And there is salvation in no one else; for there is no other name under heaven that has been given among people by which we must be saved [for God has provided the world no alternative for salvation].”
Acts 4:12 AMP

But the world knows my wife by her name Mandee and me by my name Harold — but when we are away from the world and together in private, we have our pet names — we have our close, personal nicknames. Even with our close friends, we have our names for each other that are closer and more personal than our formal names.

When you rest in the Lord, when you spend sweet time in the garden with your teacher and your comforter, what sweet and personal name do you have for the Lord and who He is for you personally?

If you don’t know Him that close and personally yet, you can. Just slow down, step away from the staterooms and temptations of this world to draw close to Him, to seek Him. He is here with you, very close and not far away. May you know Him and He know you — that changes everything. Amen.