~ {The Ethereal Realm...} ~: August 2009

~Adapted from RBC Ministries, Strength for the Journey: 24th August, 2009~

Three men were stranded on a desert island. A genie appeared and promised to grant each of them just one wish. So the first guy says, “I want to go back to my job with the brokerage firm.” Shazam, he’s back in the office behind his desk. The second guy says, “I’d like to be back in Chicago with my family.” Instantly, he’s zapped back to the Midwest. So the genie turns to the last guy and says, “What’ll it be for you?” He looks around and says, “It’s so lonely here. I wish my friends were back.”

Actually, the pain of loneliness is no laughing matter. And, sad to say, there is no magic-genie cure for the loneliness so many of us struggle with. After God created Adam, He said that it is not good for man to be alone and created Eve for companionship and mutual encouragement. So, it’s no wonder that we hurt when we are disconnected from others who could be a source of satisfaction and joy.

Yet, in one sense, even the loneliest among us is not truly alone. In fact, Jesus not only assures us of His presence but can empathize with the agony of our loneliness. He was brutally cast off by His own people, the object of criticism and scorn, abandoned by His best friends in His hour of need, and betrayed by a trusted colleague. Still, in the midst of this loneliness He was not truly alone. John 8:29 records Christ’s strong confidence in the midst of His standing alone when He says, “The one who sent Me is with Me; He has not left Me alone.” And even though He realized His teaching was rejected by men, He said, “If I do judge, my decisions are right, because I am not alone. I stand with the Father, who sent Me” (v.16).

The only true loneliness is the aloneness of being disconnected from God. When we live disconnected from Him, we scramble to fill the void with food, sex, alcohol, shopping, drugs, or meaningless activity. Many of us will do anything to medicate the emptiness we feel without God. In its advanced stages, this aloneness from God fogs our outlook with a cloud of cynicism until our only response to life is “Who cares?” or “Whatever.”

The only real way out is to cling to Jesus, the one who will never leave or forsake us (Hebrews 13:5) and the one who promises to give us life, in fact life more abundantly (John 10:10).
Maybe we know this, but we’ve been afraid to put all our eggs in the basket of all Jesus has to offer. Maybe our fear is reflected in the words of the poet who wrote, “lest having Him I would have nothing else beside.”

But Christ will never let us down. Jesus is certainly no magic genie. He does not exist in a foggy vision only to vanish in a puff of smoke. In fact, it’s just the opposite—we have the assurance that He is constantly with us. Jesus said, in Matthew 28:20, “I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”

Because of this promise, we can trust that God will never leave us stranded alone on the desert island of life without Him, but will satisfy us with His presence and peace.

Psalm 139:7-10 (New International Version)

7 Where can I go from your Spirit?
Where can I flee from your presence?

8 If I go up to the heavens, you are there;
if I make my bed in the depths, [a] you are there.

9 If I rise on the wings of the dawn,
if I settle on the far side of the sea,

10 even there your hand will guide me,
your right hand will hold me fast.

Isaiah 49:13-16 (New International Version)

13 Shout for joy, O heavens;
rejoice, O earth;
burst into song, O mountains!

For the LORD comforts his people
and will have compassion on his afflicted ones.

14 But Zion said, "The LORD has forsaken me,
the Lord has forgotten me."

15 "Can a mother forget the baby at her breast
and have no compassion on the child she has borne?
Though she may forget,
I will not forget you!

16 See, I have engraved you on the palms of my hands;
your walls are ever before me.

Romans 8:35-39 (New International Version)

35Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? 36As it is written:

"For your sake we face death all day long;

we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered."[a] 37No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. 38For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons,[b] neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, 39neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Hebrews 13:5 (New International Version)

5Keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have, because God has said,

"Never will I leave you;

never will I forsake you."[a]

Scriptures imprint:

• He alone is worthy of our worship (Habakkuk 2:18-20).
• We do not define Him; He defines us (Romans 1:21-23).
• He is completely sovereign; any lesser view is manmade (Isaiah 45:9).

+God bless...+

~Adapted from RBC Ministries, Today's My Utmost for His Highest: 24th August, 2009~

What man is there among you who, if his son asks for bread, will give him a stone? —Matthew 7:9

The illustration of prayer that our Lord used here is one of a good child who is asking for something good. We talk about prayer as if God hears us regardless of what our relationship is to Him (seeMatthew 5:45 ). Never say that it is not God’s will to give you what you ask. Don’t faint and give up, but find out the reason you have not received; increase the intensity of your search and examine the evidence. Is your relationship right with your spouse, your children, and your fellow students? Are you a "good child" in those relationships? Do you have to say to the Lord, "I have been irritable and cross, but I still want spiritual blessings"? You cannot receive and will have to do without them until you have the attitude of a "good child."

We mistake defiance for devotion, arguing with God instead of surrendering. We refuse to look at the evidence that clearly indicates where we are wrong. Have I been asking God to give me money for something I want, while refusing to pay someone what I owe him? Have I been asking God for liberty while I am withholding it from someone who belongs to me? Have I refused to forgive someone, and have I been unkind to that person? Have I been living as God’s child among my relatives and friends? (see Matthew 7:12 ).

I am a child of God only by being born again, and as His child I am good only as I "walk in the light" ( 1 John 1:7 ). For most of us, prayer simply becomes some trivial religious expression, a matter of mystical and emotional fellowship with God. We are all good at producing spiritual fog that blinds our sight. But if we will search out and examine the evidence, we will see very clearly what is wrong— a friendship, an unpaid debt, or an improper attitude. There is no use praying unless we are living as children of God. Then Jesus says, regarding His children, "Everyone who asks receives . . ." ( Matthew 7:8 ).