Sanctuary

[Rowan]

SEPTEMBER 26

FUELED BY PRAYER

EPHESIANS 6:18
[Pray] always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit.

I once borrowed a car and as a favor to the owner filled it with gas. That big Oldsmobile station wagon had an ornament on the hood that said “diesel,” a sticker on the rear gate that said “Oldsmobile Diesel,” and a note on the fuel gauge reading, “Diesel Fuel Only.” So naturally I put diesel fuel in the tank. Big mistake, since the owner had recently converted it to gasoline. When it broke down on the main street of a village in New York, I had to explain why I had put diesel fuel into a vehicle with a gasoline engine.

I don’t think I’ll ever live that down, so I use it as the perfect illustration of Christians. We are human beings, and we have “Human Being” written all over us, but we’ve been converted into something else. If you try to run your new spiritual self on the old kind of fuel, it won’t work. There are a lot of Christians who haven’t figured that out yet. The fuel for the Christian life is prayer. Prayer is the energy that makes it possible for the Christian warrior to wear the armor and wield the sword.

You cannot fight the battle in your own power. No matter how talented you are, if you try to fight the spiritual battle in your own strength, you will be defeated.


David Jeremiah, Sanctuary: Finding Moments of Refuge in the Presence of God

 

[Rowan]

SEPTEMBER 27

REPENT WHERE YOU ARE

REVELATION 2:5
Remember therefore from where you have fallen; repent and do the first works.

Perhaps we walked with God early in life, or even got all the way through college with our faith intact. But then, through small concessions in our lives, our walk with the Lord began to erode. Little by little we slipped away from the things that once had been important to us.

What should we do today? How do we get back? We must remember from whence we have fallen. Repent where we are. Go back and repeat the first works. Confess our sin. Acknowledge who we are. And then remember that God loves us.

The good news of the gospel, my friend, is that before the prodigal ever turned his heart toward home, the father had been praying and waiting for him, thinking of what it would be like to embrace him again in his arms.

God will not force Himself upon us. He will not come and drag us out of our situation. But if we will return, He will love us all the way back home.


David Jeremiah, Sanctuary: Finding Moments of Refuge in the Presence of God

 

[Rowan]

DECEMBER 5

COME TO ME

MATTHEW 11:28
Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.

Stress is the catchall disease of our day. It is blamed for medical conditions and just about anything else that people don’t know how to otherwise explain. Huge sums of money are spent every year to teach people how to live with stress.
Two thousand years ago, a book was written under the inspiration of God the Holy Spirit, that purports to have the answers to all of mankind’s needs. Can a book written so long ago really speak to the modern age in which we live?

See if Jesus’ words in Matthew 11:28–30 aren’t the perfect invitation to the stressed-out people of our day: “Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.”
The invitation, though 2,000 years old, is still valid because the basic human need is still the same: People are still weary from the process of living life without God.


David Jeremiah, Sanctuary: Finding Moments of Refuge in the Presence of God

 

[Rowan]

DECEMBER 6

SEEKING, NOT JUST TENDING

LUKE 19:10
The Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost.

We are all familiar with the idea of equipping the saints to do the work of the ministry (Ephesians 4:12)—and that is certainly part of our responsibility. But I think if the Lord Jesus were in the average Bible-believing church, He would want to know why we spend so much time trying to meet our own needs when there are so many lost sheep out there who don’t know God.

I love the ministry of the church I pastor, and yet I sometimes wonder if our church is not doing as much seeking and saving of the lost as we should be. Sometimes we are like Old Testament armies who come upon the spoils of a battle, and they gorge themselves instead of sharing with others.

I think Jesus is telling us in this parable that, while it is nice to be part of the ninety-nine sheep who are already safe inside the sheepfold, we ought to keep looking for the lost ones. Remembering what it means personally to be found is a great motivation for going to find others.


David Jeremiah, Sanctuary: Finding Moments of Refuge in the Presence of God

 

[Rowan]

DECEMBER 7

LOVE NEVER FAILS

1 CORINTHIANS 13:8
Love never fails.

Eusebius, the “father of church history,” wrote how the early Christians demonstrated love during plagues and epidemics: “Most of our brethren showed love and loyalty in not sparing themselves while helping one another, tending to the sick with no thought of danger, and gladly departing this life after becoming infected with their disease. Many who nursed others to health died themselves.”

He then added, “The heathen were the exact opposite. They pushed away those with the first signs of the disease and fled from their dearest.”

Philippians 2:4 gives a great definition of love: “Let each of you look out not only for his own interests, but also for the interests of others.” Love is seeking the best of the one loved. It is meeting the needs of another without thought of our own. It is doing for another what we would like to have done for ourselves (Matthew 7:12).

On a very practical level, this involves a lot of little things—sharing housework with your spouse, remaining patient with your children, listening to a friend, sharing praise with a coworker, helping a neighbor in need, or maybe just holding your tongue when you’d rather let loose. This kind of love never fails.


David Jeremiah, Sanctuary: Finding Moments of Refuge in the Presence of God

 

[Rowan]

DECEMBER 8

LISTEN TO OTHERS

JAMES 1:19–20
Let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, and slow to wrath, for the wrath of man does not produce the righteousness of God.


It is unfortunate that when we think about communication we only think of the active aspect of communication, which is talking. We ought also to consider the important passive application of communication, which is listening. Experts tell us that it is not easy to teach people to listen, but it is a skill that can be learned. Did you know that in one day approximately 9 percent of your time will be spent writing, 16 percent of your time will be spent reading, 30 percent of your time will be spent speaking, and 45 percent of your time will be spent listening?

We spend more time listening than any other activity, yet I’ve never seen a Christian training seminar that teaches you how to listen. It is possible to go to almost any graduation and see people getting awards for speaking, but I have never seen anyone get an award for listening. Remember the words of James: “So then, my beloved brethren, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath, for the wrath of man does not produce the righteousness of God” (James 1:19–20).


David Jeremiah, Sanctuary: Finding Moments of Refuge in the Presence of God

 

[Rowan]

DECEMBER 9

THE GOODNESS OF GOD

PSALM 27:13
I would have lost heart, unless I had believed that I would see the goodness of the LORD in the land of the living.

I don’t have to debate with you about the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living. We expect that as God’s people, but sometimes we don’t see it because we don’t look for it. I’ve been keeping track of the goodness of God in the land of my living. I keep a little journal in which I write things God does. My list is growing. When I’m in trouble and my faith gets down to a flickering flame, I open up my journal and read my list that shows the goodness of God in the land of my living. It has been a great encouragement to me.

God isn’t on our time schedule. We need to remain calm when God delays. Sometimes when we pray, “Lord, help,” He doesn’t do it right away.

When trouble comes express, extend, experience, and enjoy your faith. When you pray in times of trouble, respond to God, rely on Him, resign to His will, and


David Jeremiah, Sanctuary: Finding Moments of Refuge in the Presence of God

 

[Rowan]

DECEMBER 10

BE MY DISCIPLE

MATTHEW 11:29
Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.

There are two kinds of stress that people need to deal with. First is the stress of sin which is relieved when we come to Christ initially. But second is the stress that accumulates when we don’t live our lives under Christ’s Lordship. That is the cause of the vast majority of the stress that Christians live with daily. To use Jesus’ own words, it is the stress that comes from not taking Jesus’ yoke upon us.

A yoke suggests a picture of oxen linked together pulling a common plow. That’s not really what His words mean. Taking on a yoke was a rabbinical expression meaning to become a disciple of someone. Therefore, He is saying, “Come and be My disciple. Begin to let your life be patterned after the dictates of My life and My soul. Come and get involved in submission to Me in Lordship. Take My yoke upon you.”

Jesus, as the victorious Lord, the King of kings, is inviting us to be His disciples, to let Him rule over our lives.


David Jeremiah, Sanctuary: Finding Moments of Refuge in the Presence of God

 

[Rowan]

DECEMBER 11

PLUGGED IN

1 SAMUEL 3:4
The LORD called Samuel. And he answered, “Here I am!”

Ernest Hemingway once lamented, “I live in a vacuum that is as lonely as a radio tube when the batteries are dead and there is no current to plug into.”

Not so the Christian. We have a mission and a message. God has placed us on earth for a brief time to do an urgent work. Our lives have purpose, and all our days are scheduled in His perfect will. We travel an appointed way. What is the burning vision for your life? What does God want you to do?

Ask Him to show you. Read His Word, seeking His will for your life. Tell Him you’re available. Say, like Samuel, “Here I am.” Find something to do and begin doing it. Find a need and begin filling it.

Perhaps it’s visiting someone in the hospital or nursing home or working with children in the church nursery. Perhaps it’s singing in the choir, making visits for your church, or serving as an usher or greeter on Sunday morning.

Be faithful in that smaller thing, and the Lord will give you more work to do, and more and more—all for His glory. He wants to use you. He has a purpose for your life, and He alone can give you a vision of His will.


David Jeremiah, Sanctuary: Finding Moments of Refuge in the Presence of God

 

[Rowan]

DECEMBER 12

THE SIN OF WORRY

LUKE 12:22–23
Do not worry about your life, what you will eat; nor about the body, what you will put on. Life is more than food, and the body is more than clothing.

Let me begin by stating something that you may or may not agree with: Worry is sin. Worry is not part of our personality, it is not something to be excused because “everybody does it.” From God’s perspective, worry is sin. But in order to clarify this (it's important to know when we are sinning and when we are not), let’s separate worry from concern.

It is certainly right to be concerned about things which are your responsibility and over which you exercise control. God expects us to be responsible, to be concerned that we follow through on what is ours to do. But worry is concerning yourself about things over which you have no control. Worry is allowing care and concern to escalate beyond the realm of responsibility and into a realm in which you have no authority or control—God’s realm. And that kind of concern, which is worry, is sin.
When we worry, we deny the faithfulness of God— and that is why worry is sin


David Jeremiah, Sanctuary: Finding Moments of Refuge in the Presence of God

 

[Rowan]

DECEMBER 13

LET IT BE

LUKE 1:35 (AUTHOR’S PARAPHRASE)
Mary, you are going to be with child in a way that no one has ever been with child before, or shall ever be afterward.

There are several ways humans come into being. Adam and Eve were created directly by God. They did not come through the birth process. Today, we are the products of a relationship between our mother and father. But Jesus was uniquely born in the sense that He was born of His mother, but He had no earthly father. So Mary was asked, at the age of sixteen, to comprehend a concept, a birth process, that had never before occurred in the history of humanity. No wonder she was perplexed!

This is the glory and wonder of Christmas, that God could plant not only into the womb of this woman the Son of God, but He could plant in her heart the faith to believe the message that she received from the angel. Her response has always overwhelmed me with a sense of absolute submission that ought to be in the heart of every child of God. Mary said, “Behold the maidservant of the Lord! Let it be to me according to your word.”


David Jeremiah, Sanctuary: Finding Moments of Refuge in the Presence of God

 

[Rowan]

DECEMBER 14

CHILDREN ARE GIFTS FROM GOD

PSALM 127:3
Behold, children are a heritage from the LORD, the fruit of the womb is a reward.

The Bible is clear in teaching us that our children are a gift from God. As far back as Genesis 4:1 we find Eve declaring that her son Cain had been given to her by God. Later, Abraham and Sarah had their son Isaac as a direct result of God’s intervention in opening Sarah’s womb. God also opened the womb of Leah, Jacob’s first wife, and Rachel, also his wife. Ruth was also made a mother due to God’s intervention (Ruth 4:13).

The little ones God gives to us do not come by accident or as interruptions to our lives. They come as God’s good gifts to us, entrusted as a stewardship from Him. Children are not only given to receive love from their parents but to be God’s teachers. What parent would say they have not learned about sacrifice, patience, priorities—not to mention learned more about God’s love for us, His children—as a result of being a parent? Children are a gift for which parents should thank God every


David Jeremiah, Sanctuary: Finding Moments of Refuge in the Presence of God