Fear, Faith, and an Eternity without the Fear

Richard Forbes
Christian , Daily Devotional , Lessons in Fear

Fear, or being afraid, is a frequent subject in the Bible, and we hear this word mentioned often, but in both scripture, and our lives, there is something special about experiencing fear. These times of fright, uncertainty, deep dread, and even terror, always seem to precede amazing moments, or acts of spiritual increase. In our own lives the times of fear that cause us to cringe, and quake, go hand in hand with our being humbled before God, the abandonment of self, an immersion in prayer, and profound lessons in how we are to trust God more completely. If we succeed in receiving the lessons that are taught through fear we will find that they culminate in significant increases in our faith, and spirituality. No one would ever wish for a life filled with fearful occurrences, but we certainly need them.

Fear not - Does the World make us Anxious and Afraid?

Richard Forbes
Christian , Daily Devotional , Fear

Do the events that are occurring in the world today frighten us? Is our confidence in the Lord shaken, and is our faith in Jesus Christ fainting as the storm of man’s own making rages on? Well take heart because God is still sovereign, and His power is over all things. Jesus, even today, comes to us by walking on the raging sea, but do do not be afraid when we see Him coming because His hand stills the water; the wind remains God’s creation, and is His to rule. Let nothing in the world, on the world, or of the world, frighten us.

Spiritual Exercise - Training our Faith to increase, and Endure

Richard Forbes
Christian , Daily Devotional , Spiritual Increase

What is the training program that we have chosen to increase our faith? How do we go about strengthening our spiritual selves so that our belief in God, and Jesus Christ, will grow stronger with each passing day? A lethargic faith is one that is susceptible to atrophy, a fading away of belief, or the diminishing of its vigor, but an active faith, can overcome many trials, and weather greater suffering. A trained athlete of faith is able to endure, excel, and bring the champion’s portion of glory home to God.

Do We Experience the Reality of God through Jesus?

Richard Forbes
Christian , Daily Devotional , Our Real God

Is the life, death, and resurrection, of Jesus Christ real to us? Do we hear Him, see Him, and actually touch Him as we live out our lives, or must we forever have absolute faith in Him as an invisible mystery? God is with us, and Jesus abides in us, but although God is Spirit, He manifests Himself to us every day through His Son Jesus. The question that we should challenge ourselves with is this… do we listen for Him, look for Him, and reach out to touch Him in the world around us, or have we narrowed our belief in Him, as the Word of Life, to the unseen, and to faith alone? Have we relegated Jesus to the ether world and banished Him from the physical world in which we live, and walk today?

What it means to be Friends with Jesus

Richard Forbes
Christian , Daily Devotional , Friends with Jesus

What does our relationship with Jesus look like? Are we His followers, servants, subjects, students, disciples, siblings, companions, or perhaps His joint heirs? Well, depending on where we are in our journey of faith, or the section of the road we find ourselves walking with Him, we can be any, or all, of these things at one time or another. But, there is one part of our relationship that best shows the depth and breadth of our relationship, and that is the friendship we have with Him. Jesus looks upon us as friends, but do we consider ourselves worthy to be friends with Him?

Do we wrestle with God in our Prayers?

Richard Forbes
Christian , Daily Devotional , Wrestling God

Do we find ourselves to be like Jacob as we wrestle with God in our prayers? Do we confront a terrible situation in our lives and pray as if it were our demanding prayer that would force the hand of the Lord to act? In reality it was not the wrestling that won the blessing for Jacob, and it will not be our forceful petitions that will win a blessing for us either. It will be the humble act of faithfully holding onto God. Are we ready to be battered, bruised, and have our hip put out of place in forceful and demanding prayer, only to find God’s answer comes by yielding everything except our faith in Him?

Eternity’s Depth in Every Prayer

Richard Forbes
Christian , Daily Devotional , Depth of Prayer

What problems or challenges are we facing right now in our lives? No matter their severity we are meant to bring them to God through Jesus. It is our nature to think that the trivial issues in life can be a bother to God, and that it would irritate Him if we can’t solve them, or we bring them to Him, but He is not human, and He does not think as we think. The Lord wants us to lean on Him always, and to bring even our most routine problems and needs to Him. Are we embarrassed to repeatedly take our trivial and daily needs before the throne?

Singing to the Wells in our Lives

Richard Forbes
Christian , Daily Devotional , Singing to the Blessing

How many blessings are we given by our Heavenly Father that aren’t immediately obvious to us? How is it that we receive them without their showing themselves beforehand? So often we are thirsty in some way, and the Lord tells us to begin digging a well, and not only to dig with our hands, or by laboring over a hoe, or a shovel, but to dig with the instruments, and implements, of our faith. In such moments God goes even further by telling us to sing as we labor; not to Him, but to that thing He has told us to do, that will bring forth what will come from Him. We are told to sing to the wells we have been told to dig, and the gifts that God is preparing to give us in our lives?

Job, Jesus, and how we are Victorious

Richard Forbes
Trials and Faith

Do we endure hardship in our lives to bring the message of salvation, of Jesus, to the lost? Is our road to that place where we can have a gospel conversation, or deliver the good news of Christ, fraught with pain, suffering, and challenging trials? We endure such events in our lives because they polish us spiritually, and reveal the stark contrast of our faith as it is compared to the world. Our suffering, like Job’s, and the passion of Jesus, defines our belief, and without the battles we face, there could be no victory in our lives. Are we victorious through our hardships, and tribulation?

Filling our Worst Days with Joy

Richard Forbes
Christian , Daily Devotional , Joy in Prayer

Do we only pray, I mean really pray, in times of trouble? In the other times of life, when things are good, and we are happy, or complacent in our lives, what is the nature of our prayers? We pray fervently, and without ceasing when confronted by danger, and reach out to the Lord with all our might in our troubles, but when all is well, or our circumstances are filled with happiness, we find that our prayers become light and airy, and we only pray them as we find a spare moment, or during our appointed times of prayer. Our prayers of thanksgiving seem to be eclipsed by those we pray in the midst of suffering, and anxiousness. Is this how we should pray? Should we only thank him once we get what we want? No, God should be lifted up and glorified in all things, and His joy is meant to be be found in us because of His presence there.

Living a Life of Plenty?

Richard Forbes
Christian , Daily Devotional

Do we find ourselves financially wealthy, or having many possessions, but despite all of this we are unhappy, or feel empty inside? Do we run at life, and do many wonderful things, but despite all of our efforts remain chained to a longing, or need we can’t explain or fill? These are the symptoms of a hungry soul. We feel this way when we fill our stomachs with food, and our days with nourishing things for our minds, but starve our souls to death. we go about feeding our bodies and minds, but only God can satisfy the longings, and the overwhelming hunger of our soul.

Do we see ourselves through the eyes of the world?

Richard Forbes
Christian , Daily Devotional , Eyes of the World

In today’s business world, and in modern life in general, it seems like the mean spirited, the devious, and the scheming people often prosper, and the righteous are relegated to a life of less, but that is only true when we look at the world through the eyes we have borrowed from it. When we see success as the world sees it, and value what the world values, then we find that we are ill-equipped for life within it. Our eyes should be the transformed eyes of Jesus, and our treasure should be eternal… is this how we are gauging our success in life, and view the blessings God gives us as we wait for Him?

Finding Rest in our Fretful Nights

Richard Forbes
Christian , Daily Devotional , Peaceful Nights

When we are deeply troubled our mind is consumed by it, and it seems that all else is put away to make room for those dreadful thoughts. Haven’t we all tossed and turned in our beds at some point? Where was our faith on those nights, and why did we tremble and worry to such s degree that it brought us sleeplessness? Let’s consider Psalm 77 today, and the plea of the psalmist as he asked for God to hold his eyelids open, not so that he could consider the source of his troubles, but so that he could pray, praise, and meditate, even to search diligently for a deeper understanding of God who solves our problems… the one who comforts us, and gives us pleasant and peaceful sleep.

The Bitter Cup, and the Cup of the New Covenant

Richard Forbes
Christian , Daily Devotional , The Cups of Jesus

We look at the cup that the Father gave Jesus to drink from, and we can’t begin to understand its bitterness, and depth. We hear Jesus Himself call it a “bitter cup”, and though we see in it the wrath of God, we can’t begin to know how the pain, shame, hatred of men, the foul burden of sin, the full terror and unbridled power of Satan, and yes… the wrath of God too, could possibly join together in one cup to unleash the healing power of redemption that this cup’s distasteful medicine was meant to provide. We can’t see how this foul and “bitter cup” could be transformed into the sweetest cup of them all, the Cup of the New Covenant. We are inclined to see two cups because our sensitivity to Christ’s suffering causes us to wince, and look away from His disfigured body, and in that moment we miss seeing the final miracle, how the “bitter cup” becomes the cup of our salvation… our New Covenant with God.

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