Weekly Devotion

Last week we used the illustration of a moth struggling to get out of its cocoon. A well meaning environmentalist helped to free him from the cocoon while he was struggling to get out, but in doing that he denied the moth the chance to develop his wings and in the end he caused his death. Then we looked at our children and the need for them to struggle in order to make it out of the cocoon and learn from the process.

Today we will talk about the effect of struggling for ourselves.

The most prominent struggle in the Old Testament was when Jacob struggled with God. I am sure all of you know the story. Jacob was on his way back to his home land, back to be reconciled with Esau, but before he crossed the Jabbok river, the Lord came and he wrestled with God one whole night.

Genesis 32:24 "This left Jacob alone in the camp, and a man came and wrestled with him until dawn."

And when the sun rose, the 'man' wanted to leave, but Jacob wouldn't let him go. Then the 'man' said:

Genesis 32:28 "Your name will no longer be Jacob," the man told him. "It is now Israel, because you have struggled with both God and men and have won."

You see Jacob had to struggle in order to change. He changed from being Jacob - the one who deceives - to Israel, the beloved nation of the Lord.

At some point or another we are all struggling with something. It might be past hurts, it might be a disease with which we are diagnosed, it might be our work, we might be struggling to know our purpose in life, we might be struggling in certain relationships, whatever it may be, we all struggle at some point.

But the most wonderful part of it is that God is busy strengthening our wings in the process. He doesn't bring the hurt our way to chastise us, no He allows it to strengthen us. We might struggle and it might be painful, but once we get out of the cocoon, we are ready to fly. We break free from the things we have been struggling with and we leave it behind, never to think of it again. We can start anew, fresh and we can spread our wings, just like Israel did. We can confidently start with the new life that God has planned for us. We are no longer Jacob, the one who deceives, no, we change into Israel, God's beloved.

Thank you that You are there in the midst of our struggles. Thank you God for helping us to strengthen our wings and to fly into Your purpose for us. In Jesus' name. Amen

I received a lovely email over the weekend and would like to share it with you. The writer is unknown, but in his/her absence I would like to thank him/her for this wonderful message.

A British environmentalist, Alfred Wallace, one day picked up the cocoon of a moth and took it home. After a while there was movement inside the cocoon and he noticed that the moth was trying to get out. The moth was struggling and wriggling and truly battling to get out of the small opening of the pear shaped cocoon. Alfred was watching this struggle and he felt sorry for the moth. He decided to help him and he carefully cut open the cocoon with a knife and freed the moth. When the moth came out, he had small wings and his body appeared to be swollen. Alfred thought that it was only temporary and that the moth's wings will grow and that he will be able to fly away in no time. But this didn't happen. The moth did try to fly, but he couldn't get it right and he died within a day or two.

Alfred tried to do good by helping the moth, but at the end of the day he didn't help him at all. Alfred didn't know that the moth needed to struggle to get out of the cocoon in order to extract fluids from his body into his wings, to help the moth to be able to fly when he gets out of the cocoon. He needed this struggling process in order to survive. Alfred helped him in the short term, but caused his death in the long term.

The same is true with our children. Our children will go through similar painful processes during their lives. They will struggle and they will wriggle and they will try to free themselves from the 'cocoon' they find themselves in. It will be a very painful process, something that will cause us as parents to cry. We will hate seeing them suffer. And our first instinct will be to cut open the cocoon and free them from the pain. We will automatically do our best to make it as easy for them as possible. But we will deny our child the opportunity to grow. We will deny them the lessons that they can learn from it. They will never learn that their own choices have consequences, they will never learn perseverance, they will always sit back and wait for someone to free them from the cocoon, they will not believe in themselves and believe that they can make it out of there on their own. They will never be able to test their own abilities; they will never know what it feels like to spread their wings.

Gary Thomas writes in his book 'Sacred Parenting' that a parents deepest hurt is also the child's most important one.

As difficult as it may be to see your child suffer, sometimes it is better to leave them in the short term, in order for them to grow in the long term. I know it is easier said than done, but luckily we have a heavenly Father who would help us. He knows best and will give is the strength to go through the struggling process.

Thank you Father that You designed nature that way, that we need to struggle in order to bring out the best in us. If it was too easy, we would never have been able to shine the jewel inside us all. Amen

I was reading through Acts and one story in particular amazed me. (There are several amazing stories, but I would like to pause with this one for the moment.) This story is about the commitment of Paul and Barnabas on their first missionary journey.

They started in Cyprus and continued towards Turkey as we know it today. Now they arrived at Antioch of Pisidia and started preaching boldly. Many people believed and turned towards God. But soon the Jewish leaders became jealous of their following and incited a mob to chase them out of town. Next they went to Iconium. The same thing happened there, many people turned towards God and accepted Jesus into their lives, but soon enough the leaders incited another mob against them and chased them out of town. This didn't deter them though, they simply continued further and entered the town of Lystra.

In Lystra they preached again and even healed a man who had never been able to walk due to his cripple feet. When the people saw this they thought that they were gods. The people at Lystra all knew a myth about their town. The myth said that centuries ago two gods visited their town, namely Zeus and Hermes. They came down from 'heaven', disguised themselves as ordinary people and went into town to see if the town's people were hospitable or not. They were disappointed to find that no one welcomed them, or even offered them any hospitality except for an old couple. The legend continues to say that the gods became angry and killed all the people in the town and rewarded the old couple. Now when the people of the town saw Paul and Barnabas performing these amazing miracles, they thought they were Zeus and Hermes who had come back to test them again. None of the citizens wanted to make the same mistake again and they rushed to bring Paul and Barnabas all sorts of offerings and they worshipped them. Needless to say Paul and Barnabas was appalled by this and tried to stop them and focus their attention on Jesus instead of them.

Now here comes the interesting part for me. It was not long after the crowd 'worshipped' them, when some Jews from Antioch and Iconium came and stirred them up into a murderous mob to kill Paul and Barnabas. (Sounds like the Jews welcoming Jesus into Jerusalem with songs of praise and a week later yelling 'Crucify Him!' Doesn't it?) Anyway, this mob dragged Paul out of the city, stoned him and left him for dead. And what did Paul do? He simply got up and went back into the city! And more than that after they went to preach in Derbe they returned to Lystra, Iconium and Antioch (where they had been chased away) to support and encourage the believers there. Amazing.

Think about it. Imagine it was you. You are kicked out of three towns by an angry mob, stoned in one and left for dead, what would you do? I think I will run as far away as I could, never ever to return! And yet here they don't run away, no they simply went back there to preach some more. Wow. That is absolute dedication and commitment to a cause.

Now my question is: are we as committed? Will we tell people about the Lord and continue to tell them about Him even if they mock us? Will we continue to stand firm in our faith, when the 'mob' around us don't approve of it? Will we continue to pray for a cause/someone even if we don't see a single result for years and years? Will we dust off our clothes and simply go back to show love to people who hate us?

We can learn a lot from the commitment that the apostles had. There was simply no other option in their minds. They had a job to do and they went on living and preaching for God, even when it cost them their lives. Think about this next time you feel like giving up.

Father, thank you for giving us the strength to go on and on, no matter what the circumstances. Help us to stand strong in our faith, and to never compromise. We love You too much. In Jesus Name. Amen

Last week I spoke about spending more time with the Word of God, truly reading through it from cover to cover. Remember the Bible is not 66 different books, it is one book with one message, and if it is read in compartments certain parts of this message gets lost or distorted.

Today I would like to expand on this idea of spending time in the Word, to spending time with God. This morning I could feel a sense of 'sadness' in the Lord. And I am not saying this lightly, but with a lot of respect. Hand in hand with the message of spending more time in the Word, comes spending time with God. He wants us to spend time with Him. He understands that we are busy, He truly does, but He wants our attention and He wants us to acknowledge Him in everything we do.

Think about this example for a second. I love my husband, I really do. But imagine this scenario: When he goes to work in the morning I give him a kiss and say: "Have a lovely day, and please remember to bring me flowers when you get home. Oh and can I ask for a lovely ring too? I feel I deserve it. Thank you!" He doesn't say anything but gets into the car and leaves. Now while he is gone, I do the dishes, I plan dinner especially for him, I make the dinner, I wash his clothes, I pack his closet so everything is neat, I record his favorite program and I buy him his favorite drink for when he comes home. Now I do not speak to him the whole day, I do not phone him or email him, but I speak to my friends about him and tell them how great he is. Then when he finally comes home from work, I give him a kiss hallo and immediately ask him "Where is my flowers and my ring?" and before he can answer I go up to the room, as I can clearly see that he doesn't have it. I leave him alone with his dinner and his favorite program and I go to bed wondering whether he really loves me. I don't speak to him again that night and the following day the same scenario plays off. Do you think he will feel loved? Even after all I did for him? Even after getting all the things he loves? Even after all the nice things I said about him to my friends? I don't think so.

The same is true for the Lord. After all we are His Bride, the one He wants to share everything with. How do you think He feels when we ramble off a prayer in the morning and in the evening with our wish list on top? How do you think He feels when you do a lot of things for Him, but you never make time for Him? How do you think He feels when you talk to others about Him, but you never talk to Him? Do you think you will have a close relationship? I don't think so.

Now once again, doing things for the Lord is great, and talking about Him with your friends is super, but when you never spend time with Him it is just sad. He wants to be part of everything in your life, He wants to be the first One you talk to in the morning, He wants to be by your side during the day and He wants to be the One you talk to at night. He wants to be the first One you run to when you have trouble and He wants to be the shoulder you can cry on when you feel sad. He wants it all. And you know what? When you give Him your all, you will have the best marriage imaginable. And ask anyone that is married, there is nothing on earth greater than a great marriage and so it will be in heaven one day. Nothing will come close to your eternal marriage with God. Don't you think it is worth working on? Don't you think it is worth your time?

Thank you that You have chosen us as Your Bride. We are sorry that we tend to give You the last bits of our day, help us to draw closer to You, because it is only then that we will truly be happy and experience heavenly bliss. Amen

Currently I am listening to a couple of teachings of renowned Christian teachers that I look up to. I admire their knowledge of the Word and their way of interpreting it. I enjoy listening to them as I can see that they are very close to the Lord. But the more I listened to them, the more confused I became, as they differ on certain spiritual issues. Of course they all agree on the basics of Christianity, but on other issues, like sicknesses and healing for example, they disagree and each one of them can prove their point of view by using and quoting Scripture. Now this threw my totally off guard, because I believe that the Lord is speaking through them. But how can He be speaking through them, if they differ on certain topics? The God I know is not a God of confusion, but of unity. He wants to unite us in the Spirit and keep us close to Him. He doesn't want all of us to go in different directions and He doesn't want us to become skeptical of one another in the Spirit. There is only one Truth, there cannot be many versions to it.

So this morning I spoke to Him about it as it is bothering me and it was then that the Lord spoke to me.

"Ilze, it is wonderful that you listen to all these teachings, it is wonderful that you want to learn, but tell Me one thing, despite doing bible study through these teachings, how many times have you read the Bible through in your lifetime?"

I turned red. "Once." I admitted.

"Now don't you think you should start reading through the Bible again?"

I realized that He was right. There is nothing wrong with listening to other teachers. There is nothing wrong with attending church, in fact it is a good thing. But one must never neglect the Word of God. The Word of God is the essence of our faith. We should go through it again and again and again. It is so rich in treasures, you will still find something new even if you read it for the 100^th time. The Holy Spirit will guide you and teach you and will highlight and reveal something new to you each time.

Now don't understand me wrong, it is great to listen to other teachings! It is great to learn from others, but make sure that you have your Bible in hand. Make sure that you are armed with it and that you know it, in order to know whether the teaching is pure and right. Only then will you not live in confusion, you will know the truth and the truth will set you free!

I am ready to go through my Bible once more. And this time I think it is the beginning of many more.

Thank you Father for Your beautiful Word. Thank you that You gave it to us in order to learn and not be left in the darkness. Help us to make time to treasure it in our hearts. Amen

I received a lovely email about a young man and an elderly man who decided to have a competition. They wanted to see who was going to cut down the most trees in one day. The young man was quite excited about this competition as he was the stronger of the two by far. They started early in the morning and the young man immediately started to cut down the trees with his axe. The elderly man started as well, but after each hour he rested for 15 minutes. The young man noticed it and laughed at him that he needed to rest. But the old man didn't let that deter him, he continued with this routine, he worked for an hour and rested for 15 minutes. This continued throughout the day. And at the end of the day, they each counted the number of trees they chopped down, and to the young man's utter dismay the elderly man won.

He couldn't understand it, he never rested and this old man that did, won. The old man gently walked over to the young man and said: "My dear child, every time I rested I sharpened my axe again. And with a sharp axe you can continue so much faster."

Isn't that so true of our lives? We are living in a fast paced world, everything is getting faster and quicker and more efficient. And somehow we need to 'run' in order to keep up with it all. We never stop for a breather, because we are afraid that if we do, we will get behind the rest, we will miss out. We simply keep our heads down and continue to axe down the trees in front of us.

But don't you think it will be a good idea to stop once in a while and sharpen your axe? That is where I am at the moment. The Lord told me to stop working full time as an accountant and to spend time sharpening my axe and through doing that, grow closer to Him and His wonderful plan for my life. Now I can tell you it wasn't easy to stop. Most people couldn't understand why I stopped working and pertinently showed me how I was going to get behind all the rest in my profession. They told me that no company will ever want me again if I stopped working for too long. They made me feel as if the time I spend sharpening my axe is useless and a total waste of time and that it was more important to keep on going.

But I didn't let that deter me, because I knew that at the end of the day, if I didn't stop, I would most probably still be in the rat race, still be rushing to who knows where and I would never have experienced the liberation of sharpening my axe. It gives one a sense of freedom in knowing that you are on your way, following the Will of God for your life, and that you will get there quicker than you would have if you never stopped. Plus, isn't it much better to be inside the Will of God for your life, than outside of it?

Now I am not saying everyone should stop working. The Lord showed me specifically that I should. The Lord might show you something else, but the bottom line is He simply wants you to take breathers now and again and make time to see clearly where you are heading and where He wants to lead you. He will give you a renewed vision every time and help you on the best pathway for your life. He wants to advise you and watch over you. He wants to sharpen your axe and help you to reach your destination so much quicker.

Psalm 32:8 "The Lord says, "I will guide you along the best pathway for your life. I will advise you and watch over you."

Thank you Lord for watching over us. Thank you that You grant us time to stop and look up to You to see where You want to lead us. Help us to make the time and use it to draw closer to You. In Jesus' name. Amen

As I said my boys are still small. And when the youngest started to walk, his favorite place in the house was the stairs. I think for any parent it is enough to give them grey hairs! Because he would simply walk over to it and start climbing the twenty stairs. Now and again he would look over his shoulder to us and of course that was exactly when he would lose his balance and fall right on his back. Or he would climb to the top and then try to go down again, but due to his poor balance at that stage he would lose his footing and fall. So we then decided this is it, we are going to put gates in front of the opening to the stairs and every time we needed to go up or down we would carry him and not allow him to do it on his own for fear that he would fall and hurt himself.

He grew older and we continued with this ritual. We would carry him up and down the stairs. It wasn't until one day that the Lord spoke to my heart.

"Why are you still doing this Ilze?"

"Lord because I am afraid he is going to fall and hurt himself if I let him walk by himself."

"And do you think he is ever going to learn to walk by himself if you keep on preventing him to try?"

"I guess not."

And that is when I realized that I needed him to learn. He needed to try on his own. Yes, he will most probably fall, but I will be right next to him to catch him. So from then on, whenever we needed to go up or down, we would leave him to try on his own, but we never left his side. We would steady him if needed and grab him when he totally lost balance. And you know what, it was merely a couple of months before he could go up and down the stairs all on his own. I don't worry about him on the stairs anymore. He mastered it and I could see it gave him a sense of freedom as he could feel that we believed in his ability. And whenever the next thing in life comes that he needed to master, he will have the confidence to try.

And so it is the same with our lives with God. Sometimes He needs to 'leave' us to try on our own, to struggle on our own, in order for us to grow. He will always be there to catch us when we fall, or to steady us when everything gets too much, but we need to at least try. And before you know it, you are a better person because of it. It will give you a sense of freedom. It will liberate you into experiencing what it feels like that the King of the Universe believes you. He trusts in your ability to be able to handle the situation. And before long He will start trusting you with even more.

Lord, please give us the courage to try things on our own. But thank you very much that we can know that You will be there, always encouraging us and if needed, catching us when we fall. In Jesus' Name Amen.

My two boys are currently small and those of you with small children will know that they love watching animations. And at their age, they can watch the same animation over and over and over again! Now although I do watch it with them the first time to ensure that the film is okay for them, I don't necessarily always sit with them through the next 70 times, I see a part of it here and there, and after a couple of days I know the story inside out. I can even finish some of their sentences.

So because I 'watch' a lot of the animations with them, the stories stay in my head throughout the day. And then the more I think about it, the more I realize that most of the story is very unrealistic. For example Wall E. It is a story where earth had become so filthy and polluted that people couldn't live there anymore. They then built a spaceship and left earth for 5 years. They left robots on earth to clean everything up in order for them to be able to return. Now long story short, they didn't return to earth and stayed in space for 700 years. One after the other robots left on earth broke down until only one was left. Okay, so now I think, how is it possible for them to be in space without water for 700 years? Where did all their food come from? How did this one robot 'survive' when all the others broke down? Etc.

Or for example the movie Cars. How is it possible for the cars to talk? How can they truly have feelings etc.

Or for example Up. It is a story where an old man wants to visit a special waterfall in South America. To cut a long story short he blows up hundreds of balloons with helium and attach it to the roof of his house and flies over to the waterfall, house and all. Sounds realistic?

There are many examples and I am sure you can think of a lot more! My point is many movies are unrealistic and if you begin to analyze and question details in them you will miss the beauty of the film. You will get sidetracked with nonsense really and lose the joy of watching the movie.

It is like reading the Psalms and trying to scrutinize every verse and obtain a meaning for each one of them. Of course you can do that, but somehow when you do, you lose the beauty of it. The lovely poetry turns into an explanation and the mystical splendor of it gets lost.

The same can be said for our lives. There are many things we do not understand. Many things that just don't make any sense at all. There are many things we try to analyze and understand. But at the end of it all we need to let go and rather try and enjoy the beauty of it all. Sometimes we need to stop asking questions and rather focus on the beauty of God's love all around us. He wants us to experience His Love and that is what it is all about. Above everything and above supplying all the answers for us, He wants us to know that He loves us, more than anything.

Father God, help us to see You in everything. Help us sometimes to stop looking for all the answers, but rather to look for You, to search for You with all our hearts. In the end, all that matters is You. In Jesus Name, Amen.

My two boys are currently small and those of you with small children will know that they love watching animations. And at their age, they can watch the same animation over and over and over again! Now although I do watch it with them the first time to ensure that the film is okay for them, I don't necessarily always sit with them through the next 70 times, I see a part of it here and there, and after a couple of days I know the story inside out. I can even finish some of their sentences.

So because I 'watch' a lot of the animations with them, the stories stay in my head throughout the day. And then the more I think about it, the more I realize that most of the story is very unrealistic. For example Wall E. It is a story where earth had become so filthy and polluted that people couldn't live there anymore. They then built a spaceship and left earth for 5 years. They left robots on earth to clean everything up in order for them to be able to return. Now long story short, they didn't return to earth and stayed in space for 700 years. One after the other robots left on earth broke down until only one was left. Okay, so now I think, how is it possible for them to be in space without water for 700 years? Where did all their food come from? How did this one robot 'survive' when all the others broke down? Etc.

Or for example the movie Cars. How is it possible for the cars to talk? How can they truly have feelings etc.

Or for example Up. It is a story where an old man wants to visit a special waterfall in South America. To cut a long story short he blows up hundreds of balloons with helium and attach it to the roof of his house and flies over to the waterfall, house and all. Sounds realistic?

There are many examples and I am sure you can think of a lot more! My point is many movies are unrealistic and if you begin to analyze and question details in them you will miss the beauty of the film. You will get sidetracked with nonsense really and lose the joy of watching the movie.

It is like reading the Psalms and trying to scrutinize every verse and obtain a meaning for each one of them. Of course you can do that, but somehow when you do, you lose the beauty of it. The lovely poetry turns into an explanation and the mystical splendor of it gets lost.

The same can be said for our lives. There are many things we do not understand. Many things that just don't make any sense at all. There are many things we try to analyze and understand. But at the end of it all we need to let go and rather try and enjoy the beauty of it all. Sometimes we need to stop asking questions and rather focus on the beauty of God's love all around us. He wants us to experience His Love and that is what it is all about. Above everything and above supplying all the answers for us, He wants us to know that He loves us, more than anything.

Father God, help us to see You in everything. Help us sometimes to stop looking for all the answers, but rather to look for You, to search for You with all our hearts. In the end, all that matters is You. In Jesus Name, Amen.

The Lord wants us to enjoy our lives. He loves us very much, so much so that He came in person to die for our sins, so that we can have eternal life with Him, which is going to be even greater than anything we can ever imagine or dream!

And He wants us to enjoy our lives on earth as well. I am not saying He guarantees wealth and good health, but He does give us peace that this world will never understand and He does promise to be with us and to provide us with whatever we need, even if it is just patience to wait for Him.

But we need to do our part as well. We need to make sure that we give priority to the things that matter the most and spend less time on things that will wither away one day.

First of all we must give priority to our relationship with Him. He is the One we should search for, He is the One we should strive to know better, He is the One we should adore and honor. Jesus Christ should be our cornerstone and our foundation. We cannot move an inch forward if we are not moving with Him.

Then second of all we should give time and priority to our relationships. We should make special time with our spouses, our kids and our family/friends and also in that specific order. Nothing on earth, and especially not your work, is more important than them. They are the only 'thing' you can 'take' to heaven and into eternity. Don't you think it is worth the time and the effort to teach them about Jesus and to nurture them in a loving relationship with Him? Don't you think it is worth it to be Jesus' Hands and Feet to them and to live an example? Remember always, charity starts at home. They need to see and experience your love.

And thirdly you need to look after yourself, the Temple of God. If you don't and you are worn out and depressed, the Lord cannot use you for bigger things. You cannot rise up to be all God created you to be, if you don't even have the strength to look after yourself, and at the end of the day the whole Body of Christ will suffer. You have a unique role to fulfill and to bless other Christians with, but if you don't take care of yourself you won't be able to do it.

Stand up and be all you were created to be. Be a blessing to others and be a devout child of the living God. Then you will find the true meaning in life and find an inner peace that you are fulfilling your role here on earth and making a difference in this sinful world.

Lord God, thank you for creating us, each with a special purpose to fulfill. Thank you that You believe in us. Help us to prioritise our lives in such a way that You will be in first place, help us to look after our relationships and also after ourselves. We can only do it in Your strength. In Jesus Name, Amen.