Latest Devotions
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Three Friends
By Sheila Sattler Kale
Job
This morning in the time set aside for God, I read in the book of Job. “In all this, Job did not sin.” In all his troubles and loss, in all his pain, Job did not sin.
The next line was a subtitle, “Job’s Three Friends,”
I simply closed my Bible. I normally read more of God’s Word. Not this morning. I stared at it in my lap and thought, “I am just too tired and weary. The questions this scripture brings up are too big for me.”
I’ve read this book many times so I know the end of the story, the verse that says of Job’s friends, “I am angry with you and your two friends because you have not spoken of me what is right as my servant Job has.”
I also know that the things the friends said are normal thoughts I still think and hear spoken today. They had experience to back up their words. I have heard pastors use the friends’ words to prove the point of their own sermon. The little Miss Procrastinator in my head said, “I can’t face this now. I don’t have the energy to try to discern what was right and what was wrong.”
But you don’t just say, “Nope, too hard, too exhausted,” when this is the day God has brought you to this scripture. The Spirit gives no rest and keeps nudging you with the gift He wants to give.
My hands lay across my Bible as if I were trying to keep it closed. I surrendered, “Okay, God, what is the message of Job’s friends?”
Could it be: Any time we put God in a box, we are wrong. Any time we limit God to our own understanding of Him and speak of God as if the portion we see and understand is all there is, we are wrong—or at best—only part right.
God said, “My servant Job will pray for you, and I will accept his prayer and not deal with you according to your folly.”
So, what is folly? Folly is refusing the struggle. Folly is living in false safety with limited knowledge. Folly is talking about God instead of with God
God’s message for us today, “Find the one who lives with the unfathomable mystery of Me, who wrestles with the unknowable whys of God-man intersections, and still chooses love, still chooses faith, still chooses relationship. This is integrity.”
Father God, Thank You for the continuing conversation. Prepare and enable me to see more, receive more of You each day. Amen.
Setting up Parties
By Sheila Sattler Kale
"'… you who have
treated my oath with contempt and broken the covenant. All the same, I'll
remember the covenant I made with you when you were young and I'll make a new
covenant with you that will last forever. …. You'll remember your past life and
face the shame of it, but when I make atonement for you, make everything right after
all you've done, it will leave you speechless.'" Decree of God, the
Master. Ezekiel 16:59-63 (The
Message)
Sometimes I despair at the fallen state of our world.
Without going into a litany of the atrocities, it gives just cause to imagine
things were never in such chaos and decline.
Of course, God’s word, as well as history, teaches us
differently. Israel,
though loved, chosen, established, and nurtured by God, defaced their covenant,
not a passive disregard, but a passionate, flagrant rejection of God’s ways so
that very evil nations looked righteous in comparison.
Yet, God remembered His promises, and added to them with the
plan for a new covenant. With relish He says their reaction to his atonement
will leave them speechless. He’s saying,
“This is going to be so good!” (my paraphrase)
The God of everlasting covenants of the past is the God of
forever from this moment forward covenant, our promise, our hope, and our
salvation now.
Fickle people that we are, are we re-enacting days of old, ignoring
our Covenant Keeper while we happily set up a party in the path of a rushing
landside of consequences.
Even then, His promises are our unbroken lifeline. With sin
exposed, we stand humiliated and ashamed. God’s love rescues and redeems.
Holiness pays for our un-holiness. Our proper response is speechless awe.
Thank you, Father.
It’s All About Me!
by Sheila Sattler Kale
John 12:24 “Unless a grain of wheat is buried in the ground, dead to the world, it is never any more than a grain of wheat. But if it is buried, it sprouts and reproduces itself many times over. In the same way, anyone who holds on to life just as it is destroys that life. But if you let it go, reckless in your love, you’ll have it forever, real and eternal” [the Message]
“It’s all about me.”
I recoil at that slogan scrawled across t-shirts and trinkets. Yet, I see through my eyes and interpret through my feelings and experiences. It really is about me or at least everything I think or do is colored by ‘me.’ I don’t know how to ‘make’ it anything else.
Though the log in my eye is exposed, it is deeply embedded.
I began the New Year in song. My voice joined others as we sang, “I Surrender All.” Suddenly I felt separated in a private conversation with my Father.
How do I give up, let go of, die to myself, and surrender all You’ve given me? What am ‘I’ if not the culmination or the essence of the giftings given from Your hand. Giftings that bring me joy mixed with disappointment, grace mixed with withholdings, and blessings mixed with mere productivity.
I felt God’s answer penetrate my soul. “Do not be afraid. I love you. You slander my character with the poison of your mistrust. None of the talent, uniqueness, or gifting is destroyed in the surrender I ask. In My hands, they are shaped into polished jewels of inner light. In My hands, cold clay becomes life and brimming over joy. In my hands, anything corrupting your beauty becomes ashes scattered by my breath.”
“I surrender my disappointments. Let them be a pathway to You.
I surrender my withholding, my selfishness, and my arrogance, to trust and hope in Your goodness, my Father.
I surrender my cold, hurried, tension-filled productivity. Transform my activities into a grateful offering, a shower of blessings, and a praise of Your gifts.”
Lord, I surrender all You’ve instilled in me to Your purposes, Your surprises, Your infusing Holy Spirit. Use me, the work of Your hands, and let me be ever mindful of Your presence guiding, enabling, and lifting me out of self-absorbed mundaneness into adventure and wonder. Amen
Christmas, Immanuel 2010
As Christmas approaches, I think of the sweet baby Jesus in Mary’s arms. I think of Mary accepting God’s call and all the hardships she could not have anticipated. I think of the Light that came into the darkness and the darkness could not understand it. He came to His own, but His own did not receive Him. But some did!
But some did.
And to those and to us he gave the right to become children of God.
Those are treasured understandings. I don’t want to skip over them.
This year the message pressing into my heart and soul is: Immanuel, God with us.
How we need God’s presence. I think of all the promises: “Nothing is impossible with God.” “If God be for us, who can be against us?” For our protection, for our sanity, for our peace, we need God with us.
For God’s glory, for His kingdom, for His truth, we need God with us. And when God is with us, the darkness can not stand against His Light in us.
My prayer: May we all be more aware than ever of God with us, our Savior, our Light, our Hope, our Peace. Amen.
People Love it That Way
By Sheila Sattler Kale
I had intended to write about love that is a strong fortress, love that demands confrontation, love that is not blind. I had wanted to say that real love fights to draw forth the best in the other person and gives birth to a life of integrity and strength.
But from three different directions God brought me to Jeremiah, the weeping prophet, who warned over and over, “Disaster is coming. Turn back to God and worship Him.”
Over and over he was ignored, ridiculed, and scorned. Even though he faithfully sounded the alarm, listened for God, and lived an upright life, he suffered along with the rest of the Israelite people as the country looked to other countries for salvation and looked to themselves for wisdom.
Disaster after disaster came. Jer. 5:3, “…You struck them, but they felt no pain; you crushed them, but they refused correction. They made their faces harder than stone and refused to repent.” Finally, they were carried into exile and Jeremiah along with them.
Always the promise: Avoid destruction.
Worship the true God.
Repent from evil.
Always the same response: The people sought their own short-sighted pleasures and comfort instead of obedience to God, their maker and provider.
Jeremiah 5:30-31 “A horrible and shocking thing has happened in the land: The prophets prophesy lies, the priests rule by their own authority, and my people love it this way. But what will you do in the end? “
The election brought hope for a postponement in the direction the country is going economically. But that says nothing about the heart of our nation.
I, as much as any, want to make you feel good. But if the cost of feeling good is future calamity, what kind of love is that?
Jeremiah 5: 29 “…Should I not avenge myself on such a nation as this?”
Unless.
Unless we return with our whole heart to seek His will and hear His voice.
We have a very clear choice in the Christian community today. We can chase after those who make us feel good, or we can respond to the call to repent and agree with God that sin exist. It is not cancelled by the ‘way our society has changed and is today’ or ‘tolerance and understanding.’ Anything that takes us away from obedience to God’s word, and recognition of His eternal word, is hateful to God and does not invite His presence nor His blessings, nor His mercy.
Paraphrasing Jeremiah, “Politicians as well as church leaders lead by their own authority and are you being deceived into loving it that way?”
Lord, help us do whatever it takes to hear Your voice and surrender to Your leading, letting go of anything other than Your purposes. Amen.
Vote
“Vote Biblically,” the bumper sticker exhorted.
Yes, absolutely. By all means let’s do things ‘Biblically.”
Many of you have voted or soon will. As I researched the
candidates with special scrutiny on alternatives to the incumbents, the words
echoed in my mind. How do you vote ‘Biblically?’ One candidate apparently wrote
a steamy—maybe even pornographic—novel nineteen years ago, before she had
raised two children of her own. The other is pro-abortion, willing to kill the
helpless and voiceless and call it a ‘right’. He’s against defining marriage as
one man and one woman. But he’s for less government and less taxes.
Those contradictions exist in almost every race.
I wonder where they exist in me.
Choosing the least of two evils doesn’t feel like ‘Biblical’
to me. I think the better thing is to vote
prayerfully.
Praying for ourselves and others: May repentance flood us
and cleanse us of anything in opposition to God: the Father, Son, and Holy
Spirit.
Vote prayerfully for the candidates: May those elected allow the Holy Spirit to guide their decisions and strengthen their character.
Jesus, Gardener of My Soul
Luke 13
For three years the owner of the garden came looking for figs
on the tree. It was planted among other plants that were bearing. But it
remained fruitless..
The owner said, “Just get rid of that thing. Why should we let it use up the soil?”
But the gardener bargained, “Let me give it better care—extra
attention. Give it some more time.”
It’s very much like Jesus:
Jesus came teaching, inviting belief and understanding,
healing, and walking in His garden of souls. For three years He looked for the
fruit of changed hearts. He looked for faith. Many stubbornly withheld.
Even so, there was more to be done for them. There was
always hope.
Digging deep into the crusty soil of their refusal, He would die for them.
Fertilizing any tender roots of belief and hope, He would
come back to life from the tomb.
Such was the compassion of our Lord.
Luke 13:6-8 "...A man had a fig tree planted in his vineyard, and he went to look for fruit on it, but did not find any. So he said to the man who took care of the vineyard, "For three years now I've been coming to look for fruit on this fig tree and haven't found any. Cut it down. Why should it use up the soil."
"Sir," the man replied, "leave it alone for one more year, and I'll dig around it and fertilize it. If it bears fruit next year fine. If not, then cut it down." [NIV]
And God multiplies the opportunities for belief.
Doggie Doors
By Sheila Sattler Kale
Isaiah 41: 10 “So do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.” [NIV]
We just installed ‘doggie doors’ for our
I watch and wonder about the parallel in my relationship with
God. How many times have I heard God calling but I couldn’t see, or trust, or
understand the path? There are many wonderful clichés: “When God closes a door,
He opens a window.” “God gives us just
enough light for the step we’re on.” God always has something else
planned. God is intent on guiding us one
step at a time, etc.
But, maybe your experience is more like mine. I think I’m
like our
I don’t know in a similar way that Lilah doesn’t know why
she’s being forced through a doggie door.
What I do know is, when God wants us to do something, and we
want to obey, He will keep working with us, coaxing us, pushing us, and
blocking our escape. Opportunity ‘only knocks once’ by
worldly standards, but God doesn’t operate by worldly standards. He is a God of second chances—and third—and fourth.
His forgiveness has no limits; His love has no bounds.
Father, thank You for
Your persistence and patience and love. Amen.
Just Grass
By Sheila Sattler
Kale
Psalm 103:14—15a “for
he knows how we are formed, he remembers that we are dust. As for man, his days
are like grass…”
When I feel discouraged I will tell myself God knows we are just grass—meaning, God
knows our weaknesses. I further comfort myself with “A bruised reed He will not break,
a smoldering wick He will not snuff out.” from Isaiah 42:3
These two scriptures are paired in my heart because, when I
am most aware of my shortcomings, whether it is outright sin or lack of faith
and courage, God understands. He doesn’t see damaged beyond repair; He sees it
is only a bruise that can heal. It isn’t a used up wick; it is smoldering,
waiting to be coaxed back into flame.
And I, in all my frailty, find rest in His keeping.
Thank You, Father, You know our weakness and won’t destroy when there is any hope to redeem. And, in You, there is always hope of redemption.
Gems
by Sheila Sattler Kale
I have been especially discouraged recently. Since I’ve always thought I was given the gift of optimism and hope, when darkness, grief, and sadness come, they are unwelcome intruders. Their weight saps my energy and whispers lies of guilt and blame. It’s been like feeling my way in total darkness and stumbling over unidentified objects and hitting walls I couldn’t remember existed.
I can write about it now. Friends have been praying and I am re-discovering joy. God speaks light into darkness.
While singing praises at church this Sunday, the words from “When He Cometh” by George Frederick Root penetrated my heart.
“He
will gather, He will gather
The gems for His kingdom;
All the pure ones, all the bright ones,
His loved and His own.”
The songs speak of each of us as precious jewels and gems. While Satan tried to whisper, “only the pure ones and only the bright ones,” God spoke, “Gems and precious stones don’t look special in their natural state.”
Most gems must be mined, cut out of ordinary rock that has held captive their beauty.
So are we, in God’s hands every moment living out the shaping and polishing of us into jewels of great value. The Master craftsman is at work unveiling hidden beauty and preparing us for the perfect setting for His glory.
Lord, help me never lose sight of the truth that trials, challenges, and discouragement are only tools in Your hands, evidencing not abandonment but Your steady work of love. Amen
Praise
By Sheila Sattler Kale
I yearn for deeper worship. Maybe you do also.
How can I uniquely and fervently express my love for God? Is
there a way to praise God that is not just saying, “I praise You.” but shows praise? This question has haunted
me for a long time.
Music is obvious and wonderful for expressing celebration or
quieting the soul into contemplation. I’m not very talented in that way. What
kind of praise do I have to offer the
God who created not only me, but everything?
Psalm 34:1-4,…“I will praise the LORD at all times.
I will constantly speak his praises.
I will boast only in the LORD;
Let all who are discouraged take heart.
Come, let us tell of the LORD’s Greatness;
Let us exalt his name together.
I prayed to the LORD, and he answered me,
Freeing me from all my fears.” [NLT]
As I read these words, suddenly I found my vision blurry
with tears. I prayed, asking God,
“Help me understand what so overwhelmed me?”
I hope God’s revelation touches you, too.
You and I don’t have to worry about finding the perfect or
unique expression. Inherent in our design God has provided the uniqueness.
Using the gifts God has given to us, we express our praise back to Him.
Let me use myself as an example of what I mean.
I am a storyteller and an encourager so I will tell the
stories that display and draw attention to how wonderful God is. In fact, I
will do my best to show how incomparably amazing God is, boasting of His mercy,
grace, and love, and reveling in the wonder of His choosing me to participate
in the story of what He is doing.
When distress, depression, sickness, injustice, or any other
calamity comes, I praise God when I bring to remembrance the blessings God has
poured out in the past and the good He has promised. I praise Him by telling
about His rescue, strength, and greatness.
Remembering how God has answered gives confidence that
whether He removes me from fearful circumstances or He gives me courage to face
my fears and overcome them He will always be with me and with you to free us to
live more fully and passionately for Him.
Whether it is music, telling stories, responding to specific
needs in God’s name and with His love, organizing to make God’s work go more
efficiently, teaching, or any other gift, if we turn the spotlight on God, it
is praise to Him. It will glorify Him. It is a way of worship.
Lord, help us understand the best way to offer our praise so that it will ring out with that single song of beauty that only our unique life-voice can sing.
Stand
by Sheila Sattler
Kale
Ephesians 6:13 -14a “Therefore put on the full armor of God,
so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and
after you have done everything, to stand. Stand firm then….” [NIV]
Did I really sign up for this?
A leadership conference promised growth. Now I felt like I’d reached my limit
of growth. Mental challenges were welcome, but why hadn’t I realized it would
include stretching me physically?
It was the end of an exhausting day. I stood facing a
I turned in circles searching for escape. After a few turns,
I simply put my face in my hands and cried.
I could sit this one out. I could claim some physical
limitation or medical condition. Others were.
Except, I knew it wasn’t true for me.
The truth was worse: I thought of myself as weak, clumsy,
and un-useful. That fear of exposure and humiliation almost won.
Instead, as I stood there shaking at the impossibility of
scaling that wall, I could almost hear God whisper the words, “…after you’ve
done everything, stand. Stand firm then. …”
I decided to stand.
Standing wasn’t passive. I climbed on someone’s shoulders; I
held on tight to the hands that reached for mine; people pushed and pulled
until I was over that wall.
Those men and women were Christ to me. What I could not do
in my own strength, they did for me.
It is always true. We cannot be everything. We can’t even be
all we are called to be. It is Christ living in us that accomplishes the
impossible. It is the provision of God’s Spirit that works in us and through
others to bring about the realities God wants in our world.
If God is instructing us to do something that seems
impossible, our response is to do everything we can and then simply stand until
He provides the rest.
Lord Jesus, I often feel small and ill-equipped. Help me remember, trust, and wait for Your provision. Amen.
Greater Power
By
Sheila Sattler Kale
“Be
strong and courageous. …there is a greater power with us than with him. … with
us is the Lord our God to help us and to fight our battle.” 2 Chronicles 32z;7-8 [NIV]
I take part in
several prayer meetings every week. When there is something extremely troubling
in the news of our community or on the national level, the conversation often
goes, “How can God not punish us? As a nation our laws
allow the killing of unborn babies, and our economic polices both private and
national are short sighted and selfish; we promote the love of the sins and the
destruction of the sinner by our ‘tolerant’ attitudes. How long can a loving but
holy God continue withholding judgment?”
Then with that question filling our minds and hearts with
trepidation, sometimes we turn to planning how to survive the consequences that
are surely coming. We want to build a
fortress against the coming siege and gather our friends and loved ones in a
modern day ark.
I oscillate between resignation to justice and hope for
reprieve. Both outcomes are well recorded in scripture. God shows Himself both
punishing and merciful, judging and forgiving.
The pattern is invitation into relationship. If that
doesn’t work, God calls us through warnings and threats of judgment. Over and
over the message is: Return to Me and I will bless you.
It’s an individual invitation as well as a national
invitation.
Because I love stories and the Bible is filled with them,
because God acts so differently in each story, and because there are also common
threads through all of them, I’m planning a series of these devotionals. God
responds to our response.
Today I was reading 2 Chronicles 31 and 32, the story of Hezekiah, king of Judah. He led his people in destroying their false gods and returning to trust in the true God.
“…he sought his
God and worked wholeheartedly. And so he
prospered.”
But that didn’t stop trouble from coming. The king of
Assyria was approaching. Jerusalem was in his path
of destruction. He had a huge army and used it when intimidation didn’t work.
So Hezekiah repaired the walls of the city and built a
second wall. He amassed weapons and diverted a river to run within the city
instead of outside so no invading army would have easy access to water. He
appointed military officers. In short, he did everything humanly
possible.
But, his greatest act, the one thing that determined victory, was his words to the assembly.
“Be
strong and courageous. Do not be afraid or discouraged because of the king of
Assyria and the vast army with him, for there
is a greater power with us than with him. With him is only the arm of flesh, but
with us is the Lord our God to help us and to fight our battle.”
2 Chronicles 32:7-8
[NIV]
God literally sent an angel to crush the Assyria army and the remainder fled in disgrace. When the
king returned home to the temple of his god, his own sons killed him.
King Hezekiah and his people prepared but they did not
rely on their strength, nor was it their strength or cunning that saved them.
Today as we live in the salvation of Jesus and the
indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit, no matter what personal battle we face
or national calamity, we can rest in the truth, “Greater is He that is in me
than he that is in the world.” {1 John 4:4 paraphrase)
Lord Father, help me always remember You are the real source of my blessings. Amen.
Confession
By Sheila Sattler Kale
Jeremiah. 29:13 “You will seek me and find me when you seek me
with all your heart.” [NIV]
This is a confession.
Too long I have prayed hoping but not
fully expecting miracles.
I’m afraid of expectations. I fear
the devastating disappointment of unanswered or denied prayers.
I eat the crumbs in the kitchen unwilling
to look in the dinning room to see if a banquet awaits. If it does, am I
invited?
John
I’m not thinking of the abundant life of more possessions and more busyness. My longing is to feast on the presence of God being filled more deeply than I’ve ever experienced. Yet, He’s given me so much, dare I ask for ‘abundance’?
God’s word says, (paraphrased) He came that I might have life abundant.
Dare I not ask?
I talk with others hungering for
the same thing. You may be one of us.
Let’s join together in praying for ourselves and one another.
“To him by means of his power working in us is able to do so much more than we can ever ask or even think of, to God be the glory….” Ephesians 3:20-21 [Good News)
Father, You are bigger, more loving, more merciful and creative than I can ever fathom. Forgive me for expecting so little. Forgive me for my unbelief exposed by my fear. Reveal the places I hold back from You and enable me surrender everything to You.
Show me how to seek You with my ‘whole heart.’ Give me the courage to expect. Strengthen me to be obedient. I come as a little child, in the name of Your son, Jesus. Amen
Invitation
By Sheila Sattler Kale
Proverbs 29:18 “If
people can't see what God is doing, they stumble all over themselves; But
when they attend to what he reveals, they are most blessed. [The Message]
Recently, I watched a film documenting a community who was
changed from four jails overflowing to no need for jails at all. Another
community, trapped in the stranglehold of drugs and violence, endured an
average of fifteen murders a day. Now it is peaceful; murders are rare. The
list goes on and on.
The change began with individual repentance and hunger for
God. It spread to the community. In Uganda,
it spread across the nation. The World Health Organization predicted Uganda
would completely collapse from the devastation of HIV by 1997. Now it has the fastest declining
rate of HIV on the entire continent.
Their government and economic outlook is stronger than ever before.
In each case, it began with a hunger for the presence and
purposes of God. It began with prayer—prayers of awakening to the possibility
of God’s rescue—prayer of confession and repentance—prayers of desire for God to move in supernatural ways
not dictated by man’s plans, but waiting for His revelation and guidance.
Prayer moves us beyond denominational differences into the
realm of miracles. Today we need miracles. Today the moral fiber of our nation
is in shreds. There is no program or political rescue that can restore us and
save us from our greed and self-centered living.
I feel myself moving into ‘preaching.’ I don’t want to do that. Instead, I want to share the questions I am asking myself: What vision does God have for me?
In God’s purposes for my community and nation, where do I fit?
What does God want me to surrender to His cleansing light and transforming power?
How do I say with
absolute honesty and purity of heart that I want what God wants, that I want
God, that I want Jesus more than anything else—whatever it takes.
My questions distill into a plea bigger than myself.
God help us!
God have mercy on us!
God come!
Join my prayer:
Lord God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, show us areas in our
lives where we need repentance. Help us not hide behind walls of defensiveness
citing what we’ve done right and justifying ourselves with satisfied goodness,
but help us accept Your holy truth about ourselves and see the areas that need
Your cleansing.
Father, we cannot see without Your healing and restoring our
sight. There is a log growing slowly in our eye imperceptively blocking Your revelation.
Lord, show us Your mercy; give us your vision for our life,
for our nation. Show us the places we
are blocking fulfillment of Your design for us. Expose our sin. Give us the
courage to repent. Banish our deep fear of the cost of obedience replacing it
with a clear understanding of the consequences of remaining blind, complacent
and self-satisfied.
Come, Lord. Grow us; transform us. Amen.
