Body

Devotions

God Hears Our Cries

David Wilkerson (1931-2011)

Afflictions teach us to bend our knees, to cry out to the Lord in all our problems and troubles.

“I know, O Lord, that your judgments are right, and that in faithfulness you have afflicted me” (Psalm 119:75, NKJV). David is saying, “Lord, I know why you afflicted me. You saw that when all was going well, I went astray, becoming careless, so you allowed trouble to come upon me. You knew it would drive me to my knees and bring me back to brokenness. My affliction was evidence of your faithfulness to me!”

I know many people who have had to battle awful bondages in their lives against drugs, alcohol, cigarettes; and temptation rages every day. I say to all such people, “God cares. He knows the misery you go through, and he alone has the power to deliver you.” 

The Lord does not constantly hover over you, saying, “You’re miserable because of what you did. You failed me, and now you’re paying the price.” No! You do not serve such a God; you serve a loving Father who feels your grief the moment you first feel it. No matter how you got into your affliction, God hurts with you, and he wants to deliver you.

You may think God is not helping you at all; but the very moment he heard your cry, he went into action. Let me prove it to you. “So God heard their groaning, and God remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob. And God looked upon the children of Israel, and God acknowledged them” (Exodus 2:24-25). The word acknowledged here means “He began to act.” God heard their cry and began taking action on their behalf.

“The righteous cry out, and the Lord hears, and delivers them out of all their troubles” (Psalm 34:17). Whenever you fall on your knees, God immediately goes to work on your behalf.

The First and the Last

Gary Wilkerson

Jesus told a parable that makes a lot of people upset to this day. He described a vineyard owner who was hiring people throughout the day, but here’s the catch: the owner gave the people he hired at the end of the day the same wages as those who worked all day (see Matthew 20:1-16). We get upset reading this story. Why? Because it isn’t fair.

The story ends with Jesus saying, “‘Am I not allowed to do what I choose with what belongs to me? Or do you begrudge my generosity?’ So the last will be first, and the first last” (Matthew 20:15-16, ESV). We really struggle with this kingdom principle. We feel like we deserve more than other people — Most of us wouldn’t say we’re the best, but we all feel better than at least a few other people out there — because we’re smarter than them or work harder or whatever.

Then God turns around and blesses someone who isn’t “as good” as us. We get angry with God. We feel like we have to fight for blessings.

Look at the story of Jacob and Esau. As they were being born, Jacob grabbed his older brother’s heel. Even then he was wrestling for a double portion by pulling his brother down. Think about the promise God had given Jacob’s mother, though. “Two nations are in your womb…the one shall be stronger than the other, the older shall serve the younger.” (Genesis 25:23). If Jacob had succeeded, he would’ve served Esau. Have you ever thought about that?

That’s what happens to us when we try to elbow our way to the front. When we wrestle our way into a position of power and authority over others, we end up hurting ourselves.  

You’ve probably heard the parable of the prodigal. The younger son wasted all of his inheritance then came back, and his father showered blessings on him. The older brother got mad because it isn’t fair. What did the father tell him? “Son, you are always with me, and all that is mine is yours” (Luke 15:31). God is telling us, “Just trust me. I have blessings for the younger brother, the lesser ones; but older brothers, I have enough blessings for you too.” God has more to give to us than we even have the ability to receive.

The Simple Gospel of Christ

Joshua West

The letter of 1 John was written to a group of believers who found themselves in a difficult climate. As Christianity spread, it was met with opposition from a religious culture that was very inclusive. The Greco-Roman world was ‘open’ to many different philosophies and had a pantheistic point of view where all beliefs and ideas could be meshed together.

Christianity is monotheistic and very exclusive. Now, exclusive doesn’t mean you aren’t welcome because of your ethnic background or history. No, not at all. Rather, Christianity makes a declaration that Jesus Christ is the only way to God and that the revelation we receive in scripture is all we need for a life in God. It’s a very plain and simple declaration, and it can’t be merged with any other religion. Either it’s completely true, or it’s utterly false. 

Those in the early church who had come to saving faith in Christ had the temptation to try to merge their new beliefs with their culture’s idols. John was writing and speaking out strongly against those who were preaching false messages that the tenets of Christianity could be blended with the culture’s beliefs. He made this point through the staggering juxtaposition between light and darkness. 

If you’re in a dark room and someone lights a match, that light is undeniable. It will never be confused with the darkness. 

What Christianity claims cannot be confused or mixed with anything else in the world. 

“This is the message we have heard from him and proclaim to you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all. If we say we have fellowship with him while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin” (1 John 1:5-7, ESV). 

We brought sin on ourselves, but we will one day be resurrected into a restored world because of what Jesus did on the cross. This is the great hope we have in Christ and his message. There is no other way. 

Joshua West serves as the Church Leadership Network Director at World Challenge helping equip and empower pastors all over the world. Joshua’s desire is to raise up ministers who will correctly and boldly preach the word with passion and integrity. The point of all his work and writings is to preach the gospel, glorify God and to teach sound doctrine.

It Is the Lord’s Battle

David Wilkerson (1931-2011)

No matter what kind of trouble you are in, you simply cannot extricate yourself from it in your own power.

In order to understand how God delivers us from afflictions, we must study how he delivered Israel from their bondage. The Bible says, “Now all these things happened to them as examples, and they are written for our admonition” (1 Corinthians 10:11, NKJV).

Everything that happened to Israel — their bondage, trials and deliverance out of Egypt — are testimonies and examples to us today. The Lord told Moses, “I have surely seen the oppression of my people who are in Egypt, and have heard their cry because of their taskmasters, for I know their sorrows. So I have come down to deliver them…” (Exodus 3:7-8).

God’s Word clearly says here, “I know their sorrows.” Beloved, if that does not give you comfort in your affliction, nothing will. The Lord is saying, “I know what you're going through, but this is not your battle. The devil is too much for you, so I have come down to deliver you.”

“I am the Lord; I will bring you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians, I will rescue you from their bondage, and I will redeem you with an outstretched arm and with great judgments. I will take you as my people, and I will be your God. Then you shall know that I am the Lord your God who brings you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians. And I will bring you into the land which I swore” (Exodus 6:6-8).

Try all you want to deliver yourself, dream, scheme and manipulate; but in the end, God says, “This is my work!”

When David came against the giant, he said, “Then all this assembly shall know that the Lord does not save with sword and spear; for the battle is the Lord’s” (1 Samuel 17:47). David did not take matters into his own hands and say, “I’m going to bite the bullet and do this in my own strength.” No! He knew this was the Lord’s battle.

Learning through Afflictions

David Wilkerson (1931-2011)

The psalmist wrote, “It is good for me that I have been afflicted, that I may learn your statutes” (Psalm 119:71, NKJV). You may wonder, as I have, “What kind of theology is this? Is it actually good to be afflicted?”

The Hebrew word for affliction here means “abased, chastened, defiled, hurt, humbled, weakened, depressed.” When you put this meaning into the verse, it suddenly reads, “It is good for me to have been chastened, humbled, weakened, depressed; so that I could learn the Lord’s statutes.” The word statute means “engraved law.” The psalmist is saying, “It is good that I went through these troubles because in the process, God was engraving his laws and ways in my heart.”

The Lord allows trials to come our way to test us, but that is not his primary purpose. Rather, our afflictions are to teach us to walk rightly before him. The Bible says, “Many are the afflictions of the righteous…” (Psalm 34:19). According to the psalmist, the point of all our afflictions is for us to learn from them.

One of our missionary couples wrote about the situation in the African nation where they are working. One of the poorest on earth, its situation has been worsened by the long, bloody civil war there. The missionaries recently drove to this desperate country in a truck with a group of Christians from a neighboring country. They were delivering a load of supplies and were scheduled to attend a meeting that night across the border. About five miles from the border, their truck started slowing down. The driver floored the pedal, but the truck’s speed kept dropping. The team was dejected as they watched the car in front of them pull away into the distance.

Finally, the team arrived at the border and instantly the truck’s engine died and simply would not move. Everyone on the team wondered, “Lord, what is going on?” Suddenly, the border guards started racing about, shouting excitedly, “There was an explosion across the border not far from here! One of the warring factions blew up a car that had just driven in.” The missions team realized the car that had been attacked was the one directly in front of them. If the missions truck had been running properly, they also would have been attacked.

The next morning, the driver from the missions team turned the key in the ignition, and the truck started right up. In fact, it ran fine all the rest of the trip. They recognized that God’s purposes had been accomplished through this seemingly troublesome circumstance.