Still Know, Know Still

Still Know, Know Still By Kirk Hunt

Be still, and know that I am God;
I will be exalted among the nations,
I will be exalted in the earth!

Psalms 46:10 NKJV
Please also read Psalms 46:1–11

In these days of unending motion and turmoil, Scripture commands us to be still and know.  While knowing requires some level of contemplation, that is not point of this verse, or chapter, of Psalms.  Do you have a complete, instinctual and unshakable knowledge of God?  Do you truly understand His unending power and absolute authority over all creation, especially your personal affairs?

As a Christian, you should have a deep and absolute knowledge of the fact of God’s power and authority.  You should no more question the absolute greatness of God than the existence of gravity.  After all, gravity is just one of many concepts He casually made up while creating the universe. 

Christians do not seek the rules for their own sake.  We pursue the Rules-Maker.  What understanding we glean from the world simply magnifies His majesty. 

Stop and take a few minutes to re-consider the immeasurable length, depth and breadth of our omnipotent, omniscient and omnipresent God.  Reserve in your heart and mind an unmovable and unshakable knowledge of who He is and what He can do.  In that paused moment decide, once and for all, how that knowledge will influence your everyday thoughts and actions.

God allows us to act with a great level of freedom.  Do not confuse God’s restraint and allowance with a lack of power or authority.  His grace and love is so great He does not make us, or them, robots. 

Pause for a moment.  Think about Him.  Know that He is God

Think:        I should stop and remember that God is a great and powerful God.

Pray:           “Lord, help me to remember just how big you really are.”

 

Copyright © January 2018, Kirk Hunt

This devotional is brought to you courtesy of CadreMen Press.  You can purchase a copy of Blessed and Blessing: Devotionals For Gospel Champions from your favorite bookseller or directly from CadreMen Press.

Yet Will I Trust Him

Yet Will I Trust Him By Kirk Hunt

Though He slay me, yet will I trust Him.  Even so, I will defend my own ways before Him.

Job 13:15 NKJV

In the space of a day, maybe a week, Job lost everything a man can lose.  Job’s children died, his wealth destroyed or stolen, business wrecked, health lost and even his friends turned on him.  Still, Job declared, “Yet will I trust Him.” 

Authentic trust and true love are an active choice, not passing feelings.  Rich or poor, well or sick, do you love God first and truly?  It is easy to trust someone or something that heaps only blessings on you.  What happens when the flow reverses is the real test.

Battered and beaten, seemingly past human endurance, Job declared his faith in God.  Eyes and sores weeping in equal measure, a mere man decided that the God of heaven continued to have his confidence.  Armed with Scripture and empowered by the Holy Spirit, am I capable of the same naked faithfulness.  Are you prepared to love God despite what he allows to happen in and to your life?

What would happen if the first two chapters of Job happened to you?  Would you remain faithful to the God of heaven?  Would you continue to love God, despite your losses and wounds?

Job illustrates the standard for trust in God.  There will come a time in your life when you will have to declare for or against God.  Will you continue to trust and love God despite the hurts and losses of the short run? 

Think:        Do I really trust God through bad times?

Pray:           “Lord, help me to always trust You, no matter the circumstances.”

 

Copyright © January 2018, Kirk Hunt

This devotional is brought to you courtesy of CadreMen Press.  You can purchase a copy of Blessed and Blessing: Devotionals For Gospel Champions from your favorite bookseller or directly from CadreMen Press.

Weapons Of Our Warfare

Weapons Of Our Warfare By Kirk Hunt

For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh.   For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds

2 Corinthians 10:3–4 NKJV

From his jail cell in Birmingham, Alabama Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. confronted the clergy who criticized his leadership during the Birmingham Campaign.  King’s fostering of tension and even crisis did not involve violence or threats.  “For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal,” ought to be the strategy of activists the world over.

In his “Letter from Birmingham Jail” Dr. King declared the strategy of the Birmingham Campaign: “Nonviolent direct action seeks to create such a crisis and foster such a tension that a community which has constantly refused to negotiate is forced to confront the issue.”  The marchers did not carry bombs.  Not one of the young teenagers facing fire hoses or attack dogs raised a gun.

God’s people have powerful weapons at our disposal: Scripture, prayer, fasting, personal sacrifice.  We can change the culture.  We can build the Kingdom of God.  To do so, we must wield Godly (spiritual) not mundane weapons.

Too often, we try to use the mundane weapons of carnal men: media buys, political power, legal proceedings.  Too often we avoid touching the hurting, comforting the distressed, confronting the wicked.  God’s Church cannot change the culture comfortably or from a distance. 

To change the culture, God’s people will have to deploy spiritual weapons.  The scars of Apostle Paul’s beatings, stonings and whippings gave him the gravitas and credentials.  When he spoke to the hardened men of the Praetorian Guard they listened and believed.

If you are truly a man or woman of God, you can have an impact.  You have access to the spiritual weapons of God.  Are willing to wield them as His faithful soldier?

Think:        Our struggle to change the culture requires that we use spiritual weapons.

Pray:           “Lord, help me to build Your Kingdom Your way.”

 

Copyright © January 2018, Kirk Hunt

This devotional is brought to you courtesy of CadreMen Press.  You can purchase a copy of Blessed and Blessing: Devotionals For Gospel Champions from your favorite bookseller or directly from CadreMen Press.

He Would Not Drink

He Would Not Drink By Kirk Hunt

And David said with longing, “Oh, that someone would give me a drink of the water from the well of Bethlehem, which is by the gate!”   So the three mighty men broke through the camp of the Philistines, drew water from the well of Bethlehem that was by the gate, and took it and brought it to David. Nevertheless he would not drink it, but poured it out to the Lord.

2 Samuel 23:17–18 NKJV
Please also read 2 Samuel 23:15–19

 

In a moment of human weakness, David wished out loud for something he knew he could not have.  Through cunning, skill and boldness three of David’s finest soldiers risked their lives to bring David a canteen of water.  In humility and reverence, David would not drink.

Once these three men had been losers.  Or whiners.  Or deadbeatsAfter their time with David they had been transformed into mighty men.  Their hard-won heroism, skill and courage had transformed mere water into an offering fit only for God. 

To the untrained eye, the canteen was full of water from a specific well.  To spiritual eyes, the precious vessel was full of the blood of living champions.  David instinctively knew only God was worthy of their offering.

As leaders in God’s Kingdom, we are privileged: we get to help men and women become champions for, and in, God.  And when they are so much more than anyone expected, there is a temptation to think more of ourselves than we should.  Like David, we must keep our awe of God’s power and humility regarding our role as God’s instruments.

Fulfill the role God has given you.  Be pleased when the “least of these” become mighty men and women.  Remember it is His power that transforms souls.

Think:        They become champions because of God’s power, not mine.

Pray:           “Lord, thank you for guiding me to help others.”

 

Copyright © January 2018, Kirk Hunt

This devotional is brought to you courtesy of CadreMen Press.  You can purchase a copy of Blessed and Blessing: Devotionals For Gospel Champions from your favorite bookseller or directly from CadreMen Press.