Day 17 of 21 Days of Courage

 Matthew 14:29

“Come,” he said.
Then Peter got down out of the boat, walked on the water and came toward Jesus.
 

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I believe that everyone has a hiding place. Everyone has a place they want to run to when they experience fear or worry or anxiety. But I think it's important to remember that...

...the greatest purposes of your life cannot be
discovered while you're hiding.
 

Peter was paralyzed by fear while he was sitting in the boat, afraid of the stormy waters that were between him and Jesus. Each of us have our own kind of "boat" that is holding us back from realizing our full potential in Christ. The boat is safe, secure, and comfortable. On the other hand, the water is rough. The waves are high. The wind is strong. There’s a storm out there. And if you get out of the boat—whatever your boat might happen to be—there’s a good chance you might sink.

But if you don’t get out of the boat, there’s a guaranteed certainty that you will never walk on the water. If you want to walk on the water, you’ve got to get out of the boat.

So let me ask you a very important question: What’s your boat? Your boat is whatever represents safety and security to you, apart from God himself.

It could be - 

• Money
• Relationship
• Geographical Location
• Job title 

You know one of the most interesting stories in Scripture is the journey of the Israelites. After 400 years of slavery God sets them free. What do they do with their freedom? They complain. They couldn’t stand the unknown. They couldn’t stand being out of the boat and being on the waves and having to trust God so they actually beg to go back. That day, the Israelites proved to all of us that there’s a difference between being set free and living free.

Want to know why some of you are stuck in your past?
Want to know why some of you are living lives of mediocrity?

You choose it. I know that may sound a little harsh, but it’s true, isn’t it?

You’ve consciously—or maybe subconsciously—made a choice that you would rather stay in the predictable patterns of your past (no matter how painful they might be) than take a risk and venture into the unknown where you have to risk failure. But when you’re hiding you might be surviving, you’re just not thriving.

I’m praying for you today as you consider stepping out of the safe and comfortable, and trusting God in new and exciting ways. 

-Pete

 

Tim Keller: Questions for Sleepy or Nominal Christians

Day 16 of 21 Days of Courage

Matthew 14: 25-29
²⁵ Shortly before dawn Jesus went out to them, walking on the lake. ²⁶ When the disciples saw him walking on the lake, they were terrified. “It’s a ghost,” they said, and cried out in fear.
²⁷ But Jesus immediately said to them: “Take courage! It is I. Don’t be afraid.”
²⁸ “Lord, if it’s you,” Peter replied, “tell me to come to you on the water.”
²⁹ “Come,” he said.
 

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I think most people who are experiencing any kind of fear automatically think that’s a bad thing. That it’s a sign of weakness or maybe even a lack of faith. I don’t believe that. In fact, I believe that
 

 Anything God leads you to do will initially involve some level of fear.

A lot of us grew up with this idea that if you were obedient to Jesus, everything was going to be great. If you were obedient to Jesus, you’re not going to have to go through storms because Jesus would never do that to you.  But look at this story. Who sends the disciples into the storm? Who allows them to float right into the midst of a really scary situation? Jesus does, right? The reality is that Jesus will sometimes willingly allow you to walk into a storm, because it’s in the midst of the storm that He gets our full attention.

The disciples would have to learn—as do we—that obedience is no guarantee of being spared adversity.

But now that the storm had their full attention, Jesus decided it was time the disciples got to know him a little better and that often happens when we’re forced to lean into him.

Is it possible that maybe you’re exactly where God wants you to be right now? Is it possible that God might want to use this situation or this circumstance to teach you something knew about Him? Lean into your circumstances and seek God's purpose through the storm; take courage, and don't be afraid.

-Pete

 

Day 15 of 21 Days of Courage

John 14:1
“Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God, trust also in me.”

 

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Let me set up this scene for you – Jesus had just performed an incredible miracle – he took a small loaf of bread and fish and fed 5,000 people! The people got the idea that Jesus would make a wonderful king. Obviously if he could take a little bread and fish and feed 5,000 think about what he could do for an army or better yet a whole country. So the people wanted to make him King and Jesus told him that he wasn’t that kind of king.

It’s very probable that the disciples thought that was a great idea also and they wanted to see Jesus made into the king. Jesus has to tell them no and to get into the boat, it was time to move on.
 

Give up your ideas of power and glory, trust me on this guys, get into the boat.
It is an act of trust and obedience.

When they get into the boat, it is still light outside. Remember, many of these guys are professional fisherman, so they were familiar with boats. But when an intense storm blows up in the middle of the night, they don’t think they are going to make it. In the midst of this storm, however, Jesus comes to the disciples, now afraid thinking they are seeing a ghost. To prove he says who he says he is, Jesus asks them to get out of the boat…to walk on water.

Can you imagine the amount of courage it would take for Peter, or any of the other disciples, to step out of that boat, into a stormy sea, to go after what appears to be a ghost? That’s a pretty big step of faith, and that’s what I want to encourage each of you to consider – becoming a water walker. Whatever your “boat” is, what will it take to get you to step out of it and walk into the plans that God has waiting for you?

I can’t tell you how excited I am for you. I have no doubt that it’s not by accident that you found this devotional. It’s not by accident that you’re reading it today.
 

God’s calling you, he’s prompting you, He’s placing dreams and ideas into your heart. The question is, will you trust him?

Over the next few days, I’ll be sharing with you 6 things that I think every future water walker needs to know in order to get out of the boat. I hope by the end of this, you’ll be considering taking that first step of faith and becoming a water walker.

-Pete

 

 

Day 14 of 21 Days of Courage

Philippians 3:12-14

¹² I don’t mean to say that I have already achieved these things or that I have already reached perfection. But I press on to possess that perfection for which Christ Jesus first possessed me. ¹³ No, dear brothers and sisters, I have not achieved it,^[a^] but I focus on this one thing: Forgetting the past and looking forward to what lies ahead, ¹⁴ I press on to reach the end of the race and receive the heavenly prize for which God, through Christ Jesus, is calling us.
 

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Many people are motivated to move past their fears and in the direction of their passion by activating what Bill Hybels calls “holy discontent.” In his book by the same title, Hybels explains that, when we consider the problems in our world, that particular situation we “just can’t stand” and that we cannot get out of our minds is usually the locus of our holy discontent—a passion sent from God and ignited by our particular response to some aspect of the world’s need.

For example, I know of two college students in Texas who became convicted about the problem of sex trafficking. The horror of young girls being abducted and victimized as they were sent into the maw of the sex trade was an image these two young women simply could not get out of their minds. So, they decided to take action. They founded a group called the Red Thread Movement that sponsored efforts to rescue women and girls from the sex trade, with a concentration in the nation of Nepal, where sex trafficking is a major industry. Every year, an estimated eleven thousand women and girls are trafficked from Nepal into India and other destinations. They are sold into the sex trade by their families, by their husbands, and by kidnappers.

The Red Thread Movement got its name from the simple red thread bracelets—woven by the rescued women—that the movement sells to raise money for funding its efforts. The money goes to pay a fair wage to women who make the bracelets and also to fund efforts of the border monitors and halfway houses that form the all-important first links in the chain of the rescue effort. The border monitors are women who stand at border crossings all day, watching for women who exhibit the signs of trafficking victims. Once they are identified and taken away from traffickers, the rescued women are taken to one of three safe houses operated by the Red Thread Movement’s partner organization in Nepal. There, the women receive training, counseling and, most important of all, hope.

None of this would be possible without the efforts of these two visionary and passionate young women who paid attention to their holy discontent. They found the place in their hearts, described by Frederick Buechner, where their passion intersected with the world’s deep need, and they had the courage to follow where that passion led. At last count, this grassroots organization, started by two college students, was helping to fund the rescue of some fifteen hundred victims per year.

What fuels your inner fire? It may well be that the thing keeping you up at night is not fear but passion. I urge you to listen to that passion. It may very well be the dream God has shaped for you to fulfill.

Something interesting happens to those who begin following their passion - fear is replaced by a sense of calling. They become more focused on the object of their passion than they formerly were on the fear that was blocking the path.  

When we follow our passion and allow it to be channeled into action, we realize that our former fears are not as formidable as we first thought. Instead, the uncertainties and worries that seemed so insurmountable before have receded. Propelled by divine discontent, we notice less and less our impediments and problems, while noticing more and more the opportunities lying before us and the tools God is giving us to take advantage of them. We receive the strength that comes with conviction and the vision that comes with faith. And while this does not mean that all difficulties will disappear, it does mean that we are much better equipped to handle them than we were when we were standing still, mired in fear of the unknown.

-Pete
 

Day 13 of 21 Days of Courage

2 Corinthians 4:17
“For our present troubles are small and won't last very long. Yet they produce for us a glory that vastly outweighs them and will last forever!”
 

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I have never been what you would call proficient at the ancient and honorable game of chess, but I am fascinated by it all the same. I’m amazed at the skill and intellect required to see not only your next move, but your opponent’s next move, and the next five or six moves after that. It boggles my mind.

One of the things I especially love about chess is the role of the pawns, those pieces lined up in the front row—cannon fodder for the fast-moving rooks, knights, and bishops. Because they can only move one space at a time and only in the forward direction, many players think of pawns as weak and valueless; they can be sacrificed with no great consequence. But some players, I’ve heard, jealously protect their pawns. They guard them carefully, saving them for the later stages of the game.

Why? Because if you can keep a pawn alive long enough to get it to the opponent’s back row, the lowly pawn can be transformed into a queen, the most potent piece on the board.

To me, that is the essence of courageously navigating the difficulties of life. When the going gets hard and you feel like a pawn, shuffling slowly from space to space, that’s the time to hang in there! For all you know, you may be almost to the finish line. You may be just about to get your promotion, your spot in the limelight.

And it is a fact that, to God, you are not a pawn. You are made in His image, born to be an agent of His unfolding design for the world. Even when things look dark and you are questioning all your most basic assumptions, there is a divine spark in you that nothing can quench. God has invested you with meaning, with a purpose that nothing can take away.

Viktor Frankl was a neurologist and psychiatrist who practiced in Vienna, Austria, until 1942, when he and his family were deported to the Theresienstadt ghetto by the Nazis. Subsequently, Frankl was transferred to Dachau while his wife Tilly was sent to Bergen-Belsen, where she died.

Frankl endured the horror of the death camps, treating patients when he could. He spent five months as a slave laborer.  Somehow, he managed to survive until his camp was liberated by the Allies in 1945.

After the horror of the camps, Frankl pondered the meaning of his experiences. The ultimate outcome of his thinking would be captured in his profoundly influential book, Man’s Search for Meaning, published in 1959. Frankl concluded that even under the cruelest conditions, life can still have meaning.

Even suffering, he reasoned, can be an achievement
if it is endured in the right way.

He relates a story of a forced march on a bitterly cold morning. The prisoner marching beside him commented, “I hope our wives are better off in their camps and don’t know what is happening to us.” Frankl was suddenly captivated by the thought of his wife—his love for her and hers for him, the way she used to look at him, her kindness and understanding. He writes:

A thought transfixed me: for the first time in my life I saw the truth as it is set into song by so many poets, proclaimed as the final wisdom by so many thinkers. The truth—that love is the ultimate and the highest goal to which Man can aspire. Then I grasped the meaning of the greatest secret that human poetry and human thought and belief have to impart: The salvation of Man is through love and in love. I understood how a man who has nothing left in this world still may know bliss, be it only for a brief moment, in the contemplation of his beloved. . . For the first time in my life I was able to understand the meaning of the words, “The angels are lost in perpetual contemplation of an infinite glory.”

I believe Viktor Frankl was onto something. What he discovered on that frigid morning, in the midst of the most hopeless situation imaginable, is that even the worst times do not define the meaning of our lives. A loving God, who longs to walk with us and know us, has placed into us a portion of His own nature. And that—not our circumstances—is what defines us and sets us apart. That is what enables us to follow our dreams, even if we have to walk in the dark.

You were made to shine like a diamond. When you endure the difficulties with courage and emerge on the other side, you will find that the experience has polished you to a harder, more durable glow. As you persist through the challenges, you will discover a bit more of the eternal spark placed in you by God.

-Pete
 

Day 12 of 21 Days of Courage

Isaiah 40:31 
“They that wait upon the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not be faint."
 

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God often uses waiting as a crucible in which to refine our character. Faithful waiting on God makes us stronger, not weaker.

Waiting is also a sign of humility. Remember that, long ago, persons of lesser rank who served nobility and royalty were said to “wait upon” them. In a similar way, they were said to “attend” to their lords and rulers. Even today, the French word for “wait” is “attend.” Maybe there is something to learn here. Maybe we should think of waiting on God less as passively sitting around until something happens and more as actively attending—listening carefully for God’s voice and watching intently for evidence of His moving in our lives and in the world around us.

Now, believe me, I understand that those of you reading these words today, who are in the midst of waiting for a miracle, or waiting for a dream to be realized, or waiting to be delivered from a dark, scary place, probably feel helpless. You feel as if you’re doing nothing, but you’re actually doing something very important. In fact, this waiting—this attending to God—may be the most important spiritual work you could possibly do. While you are waiting faithfully on God, you are also allowing your hope to grow up. And if you can’t be still and wait and hope—even when you have no reason to hope—you can’t become the person God created when He thought you into existence.

Spiritual transformation doesn’t take place when we get what we want, it takes place while we’re waiting. It is forged in us while we’re waiting, hoping, and trusting, even though we have yet to receive what we long for. Spiritual transformation happens in the waiting room.

Waiting also helps us learn the vital lesson that just because a dream is delayed doesn’t mean it is denied. When we continue to hope patiently and place our trust in God and in His schedule—not ours—we begin to gain the type of long-range perspective that allows us to have peaceful souls, even when the storms of life are raging about us. With God, we can wait out the storm and see the sun breaking through the clouds. When we trust in Him, we will eventually see the rainbow and the rebirth of our hopes and dreams.

-Pete