A while ago, I had the opportunity to do some very basic rock climbing and learn a little about how it is done. One thing that was very evident to me was how important and reassuring it was to have a “belay” line. A belay line is used by rock climbers to prevent falling a long distance if they lose their grip or footing and fall. On a climbing wall the lines hang down from the top, and slack is taken up as the climber ascends. On a natural climb, the belay line is anchored and another stationary climber feeds out the line as the other climber ascends. If the climber slips, he/she can only fall as far as the last anchor point and the amount of slack the rope allows.

The simple climbing I did looked so easy from the ground. However, once 30 or 40 feet up, the knowledge that making a mistake would only result in a learning experience and maybe a scrape or two, rather than serious injury or death, made it a completely different experience.

In a similar way, this is what Paul is saying in Hebrews 13:5-6, he writes, “For God has said, “I will never, never fail you nor forsake you.” That is why we can say without doubt or fear, “The Lord is my helper, and I am not afraid of anything that mere man can do to me.”

If we can get the belief God will not fail us, built into our hearts and minds. We can proceed with confidence on the mission to which he calls us.

Dear Lord, Knowing that you will not fail them provides incredible power and strength to those who trust you. Help us all to have this faith and do your will even in the midst of our fears. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

Just after Solomon was king of Israel, there was a split in the kingdom of Israel with Judah in the south and Israel in the north. During this time, God spoke through the prophet Jeremiah trying to tell the people of Judah to get back on course and follow God’s guidance.

He writes in Jeremiah 6:16, “This is what the Lord says: “Stop at the crossroads and look around. Ask for the old, godly way, and walk in it. Travel its path, and you will find rest for your souls. But you reply, ‘No, that’s not the road we want!”

How similar is this to the attitude many people have today. They know right and wrong in their hearts, they can read God’s guidance in the bible, they can look and see people who have followed God’s direction and had peace and prosperity, but after all this input, many people still say, “no that is not the road we want.” They live their lives in opposition to the direction God has established, and wonder why things don’t work out for them.

Ultimately, Judah was overtaken, destroyed and its people were enslaved.

Dear Lord, You give us right and wrong in our consciences, you outline your will in the bible, and you provide us many wonderful Christians on which to model our lives. Help us use these things to keep us on the path that leads to your will. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.

The Bible tells us in a number of passages that we should be humble. James 4:10 writes, “Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up.”

Being humble goes hand in hand with being thankful. If we are thankful to God for the things we have, our skills, our health, our successes, it is much easier to be humble. Job 1:21 writes, “The Lord giveth and the lord taketh away.” Whether we do things just right, or make mistakes, God determines the outcome.

When we feel the desire to take the credit and explain what a great job we did with our success and achievement, we need to think about 1 Corinthians 1:31 where Paul writes, “If you must boast, boast in the Lord.”

Sometime when you are complimented on an achievement, try responding with something like this, “Thank you. God has truly blessed me.”

Dear Lord, all we have comes from your gracious love for us, working to grow and develop us. Help us remember to give you the credit and glory for the successes and achievement we experience in life,, and use them to further your work. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

There are numerous reasons people resist or reject the message of Jesus Christ. One that has been common since the beginning of Christianity is the difficulty scientific and academically “smart” people have with not being able to figure things out. During early Christianity, the brilliant academics were the Greeks. Even today, we study writings of Plato, and Aristotle, and the creations of the ancient Greeks.

The apostle Paul recognized this challenge that the “intellectuals” had with Christianity and wrote about it in 1 Corinthians 1:21-25. He wrote, “Since God in his wisdom saw to it that the world would never know him through human wisdom, he has used our foolish preaching to save those who believe. It is foolish to the Jews, who ask for signs from heaven. And it is foolish to the Greeks, who seek human wisdom. So when we preach that Christ was crucified, the Jews are offended and the Greeks say it is all nonsense. But to those called by God to salvation, both Jews and Greeks, Christ is the power of God and the wisdom of God. This foolish plan of God is wiser than the wisest of human plans, and God’s weakness is stronger than the greatest of human strength.”

What if you needed to be smart enough to figure out how salvation worked in order to be saved. It would no longer be God saving, it would be the smart saving themselves; Which would essentially make them their own god. Ultimately, when people put their intelligence above their faith, they are making themselves or their intellect their own god.

Dear lord, we all have our struggles to overcome in order to surrender ourselves to you. Help us all see and believe the power and peace of salvation, your gift to us, and accept it with humility. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.

We all have experienced the challenge and frustration of learning something new at some point in our lives, algebra, a foreign language, a new piece on a musical instrument, a trick on a skateboard, tennis backhand, or one of a thousand other skills. The learning process rarely happens with one try and then we have the skill mastered. Most of the time, it takes many attempts to get it right once, then many repetitions of doing it correctly before we can do it right, at will.

In a way, this is what James is describing in James 1:2-4, “Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.”

James is saying we build up our skills as faithful Christians by going through the difficult practice testing our faith, but when we do this enough, we will have these “skills of faith” mastered.

Dear Lord, You are always giving us the opportunity to face challenges that improve our skills to serve you. Help us see these challenges as the learning and development that they are, and not irritants for us to complain about. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.