The Final Goal: A Safe Pair Of Hands
Read: Psalm 138
You reach out Your hand, and the power of Your right hand saves me. – Psalm 138:7
Edwin van der Sar, goalkeeper for Manchester United, had a safe pair of hands. He kept the ball from entering the net for 1,302 minutes—a world record in one season! It means that for almost 15 games of 90 minutes each, no one was able to score even one goal against his team while he was between the goalposts. It took a goal in March 2009 to finally bring his remarkable streak to an end.
The psalmist David found comfort in the safest pair of hands—God’s hands. He wrote of God’s protection in Psalm 138, “You will stretch out Your hand . . . and Your right hand will save me” (v.7). Like David, we can look to God’s safe hands to keep us from spiritual threats and danger.
Another assurance from God’s Word that followers of Christ have is Jude 24-25: “Now all glory to God, who is able to keep you from falling away and will bring you with great joy into His glorious presence without a single fault. All glory to Him who alone is God, our Saviour through Jesus Christ our Lord.”
That doesn’t mean we won’t ever stumble. But it does mean we won’t stumble so badly that He cannot pick us up. His pair of safe hands can never fail—ever! —C. P. Hia
Our salvation is secure because God does the holding.
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Loading ...ODJ: deliverance
In His love and mercy He redeemed them. He lifted them up and carried them through all the years (v.9).
READ: Isaiah 63:8-10
A 10-year-old human trafficking victim is freed from a brothel in Southeast Asia where she had been abused and sexually exploited. Another child, age 9, is released from indentured slavery in India. Meanwhile, across the ocean in East Africa, a 13-year-old orphaned boy is ushered into a residential home for youth after 5 years of struggling to survive alone on the streets.
While removing these children from their respective residences of horror required valiant efforts on the part of their rescuers, one might argue that the greatest work on behalf of the boys and girls has just begun. For, as both biblical and modern-day cases reveal, it’s in the aftermath of oppression that some of the most complex obstacles to healing and restoration come to light.
Among the hindrances to a victim’s restitution is the ongoing threat of enemies. The Amalekites ruthlessly attacked the Israelites when they were “exhausted and weary” after fleeing slavery in Egypt (Deuteronomy 25:17-18). Today, equally relentless perpetrators seek to recapture children who are weak and vulnerable following their extraction from an abusive situation.
Guilt, stigma, and chronic poverty are additional barriers to a child’s lasting deliverance.
What can you do to bring forth positive change on behalf of the hundreds of thousands of girls and boys who are trafficked each year?
• Pray that child traffickers will be arrested and brought to justice.
• Pray that rescued children will receive the ongoing love, care and protection they need.
• Support organizations that are providing holistic aftercare for boys and girls. They’re used by God to provide true deliverance (Isaiah 63:9).
—Roxanne Robbins
How can you help free innocent boys and girls from commercial sexual exploitation and other forms of slavery and abuse? How does God view these children?
(Check out Our Daily Journey website!)
(No Ratings Yet) Loading ...ODB: retreating forward
July 5, 2010
READ: Matthew 14:13-23
When He had sent the multitudes away, He went up on the mountain by Himself to pray. Now when evening came, He was alone there. —Matthew 14:23
Afriend told me about his church’s leadership retreat. For 2 days, church leaders pulled away for a time of prayer, planning, and worship. My friend was not only refreshed but also energized. He told me, “This retreat is really going to help us move forward as a church ministry.”
It sounded funny to me—this notion of retreating in order to move forward. But it is true. Sometimes you have to pull back and regroup before you can make meaningful forward progress. This is particularly true in our relationship with God.
Jesus Himself practiced “retreating forward.” After a busy day of ministry in the region of the Sea of Galilee, He retreated. Matthew 14:23 tells us that “when He had sent the multitudes away, He went up on the mountain by Himself to pray. Now when evening came, He was alone there.” Alone in the presence of the Father.
In this fast-paced, get-ahead world, it’s easy to wear ourselves down—pressing ahead and moving forward at all costs. But even in our desire to be effective Christians, we must consistently be willing to retreat into God’s presence. Only in the refreshing of His strength can we find the resources to move forward in our service for Him. Retreat in Jesus before moving forward. —Bill Crowder
Alone with the Father is the only place to find the strength to press on.
(1 votes, average: 5.00 out of 5) Loading ...Why Am I…?
By Rachel Ang, 21, Singapore
When I was first told about ymiblogging.org, I was not aware that YMI stood for Youth Ministry Initiative. I simply thought it was a really clever way of writing “Why Am I Blogging.”
Indeed, what is our reason for blogging, in studying or working, or in having relationships with people? Why do we do anything at all? Every person needs a purpose in life. But I’ve come to realize that it is not easy to find a goal that will give constant motivation as well as lasting satisfaction.
How many times have we found ourselves going around in circles while striving to obtain things like money, clothes, good grades, popularity and fame? Where does it end, and what happens after? Or if there is no finish line, why do we even bother when it’s simply futile?
The writer of Ecclesiastes experimented pursuing different things. He chased after wisdom, pleasure, work, politics and wealth, and concluded that in and of themselves, these things all ended in purposelessness.
So I came to hate life because everything done here under the sun is so troubling.
Everything is meaningless—like chasing the wind.
Ecclesiastes 2:17
How then should we live life if everything is doomed to end in such meaninglessness? Solomon found the solution when he put God into the equation.
Then I realized that these pleasures are from the hand of God.
For who can eat or enjoy anything apart from Him?
Ecclesiastes 2:24b-25
God made us to function the way we do. We were designed to live life to the fullest, and to enjoy the things that God has created. The problem arises when we pursue after things to glorify ourselves and not God. Jesus asked in Luke 9:25, “And what do you benefit if you gain the whole world but are yourself lost or destroyed?” Essentially, Christ is telling us that gaining the whole world is infinitely less valuable than our eternal destiny in relation to God. A self-centered life focused on this present passing world will not find or grasp the beauty of eternal life with God.
We who believe in Christ have been saved from such arbitrary existence. We have been redeemed from such a doomed life through Christ’s work on the cross. Through Him, our intended purpose in life of having a right relationship with God is restored. Unlike the transient achievements that many sought after, the glory of God will never pass away, even when we physically die. This is a great assurance that we can cling on to: that we will one day see God and live to glorify and enjoy Him forever.
And this world is fading away, along with everything that people crave.
But anyone who does what pleases God will live forever.
1 John 2:17
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