Month: January 2024

“Everything comes from you, and we have given you only what comes from your hand.”

1 Chronicles 29:14 (NIV)

I have a trusted auto mechanic, whose shop is walking distance from my home. When I need  anything, I can drop my car off and just walk two blocks back to my home. They are honest, friendly and reliable, and because they are so close to home, it’s my first “go to,” for any car problems that I might suspect.

A playlist of music on my phone has been synced to my car speakers for a few years now. Every time I turn on my car, my selected music from my playlist, starts playing through my car radio, as long as my phone is in the car with me.

One day it showed that the songs were playing, but no sound was coming out. I adjusted the volume knobs on my car, but nothing helped. I just could not get the sound to come through. I tried everything except going to the source of that playlist, which was on my phone. 

I was so focused on the car and its speakers being the problem, that I finally drove to my nearby auto repair shop. A nice young mechanic was available, and I told him that something was wrong with my car speakers, and asked him to check out why I couldn’t hear my music. 

He came and looked, first trying to adjust a few knobs on the car radio, but then he turned to me and asked to see my phone. I gave it to him and he immediately found that the volume button was turned all the way down. I don’t know how that volume button was completely turned down, but after he turned it up, the sound of music came back in my car, and I never felt more stupid. 

My phone was the first place I should have looked. It was an embarrassing lesson, reminding me to always go to the source of a problem first. My car radio was not the source of the music, my phone was.

Sometimes a person steps in and reminds us to look to God, who is the source of all that we are. Over the years, we tend to form opinions based on the external influences of social trends, our education, our friends, our family and all the experiences that we’ve had. After a while, we can become conformed to those external influences. They are like the sounds of music playing on the playlist of our lives. 

Paul says “Do not be conformed to this world but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that you may prove what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.” 

(Romans 12:2)

God is our source of wholeness for all aspects of who we are, in body, mind, soul and spirit. His voice is always within us. If we turn up the volume at the source, He transforms us by renewing our minds, according to His will, instead of being conformed only by those external influences. 

He is the volume button that enables us to hear His truth over all the noise and chatter around us. 

I was raised in a Christian faith, but never really understood who Jesus was. Although my mother taught us to pray, I didn’t have enough early understanding of Jesus or walking in faith. I remember the philosophy courses in my first year of college, which caused me to wonder what the purpose of life is. I can still recall asking myself the question 

“If there is a God, what does He expect of me?” That was my turning point, where I turned up the volume button at the source, and opened my heart to God’s truth, and He eventually transformed of my spiritual life. 

I was only nineteen at the time, and soon after asking that question, I decided to read a book about Bible prophecy. I recited a prayer that was on the last page of the book, which was the first time I ever prayed, acknowledging my need for Jesus and His forgiveness. 

I immediately felt a sensation of warm oil pouring over my head. 

I  was so overwhelmed with the reality of God’s love and forgiveness in that moment, which I now know was the Holy Spirit, and I had a peace that was beyond understanding. 

I was radically transformed and renewed from that day on, as I found the volume button, which tuned me in to God, who is the source of who I am and was ever meant to be. 

The Lord wants to bring us closer, to speak His truth within our hearts and override all the shallow external influences of our life. He wants to pick us up like a parent holds a small child close, so that we can listen to His voice softly speaking, and find that He is our source of comfort, healing and restoration.

Lord, everything we truly need, comes from you, and you are the source of all we are and were meant to be. We pray that our volume button is turned up as you hold us close, so that we can listen to your voice, above all the chatter in the world around us. Amen

“The Lord used to speak to Moses face to face, as a person speaks to a friend.”

Exodus 33:11 (NAB)

Just think about this verse, that the Lord spoke with Moses as one speaks to a friend. James wrote, “Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness, and he was called the friend of God.”(James 2:23) 

The Lord called Moses and Abraham His friends, and then came Jesus, who had twelve chosen disciples, but three in particular who were His close friends. When we think about God and friendship, we can safely say that God desires our friendship.

Jesus had many followers, but He only took Peter, James and John with Him, during His deepest and most difficult moment in the Garden of Gethsemane. He also took them with in His peak moment during a heavenly vision on the Mount of Transfiguration. 

I used to assume that those three disciples were chosen by God, because they had some special qualities more than the others. The beauty of friendship with Jesus is that He calls all of us to be His friends, simply because He loves all of us and equally desires our friendship. It’s up to us to respond to His call. Peter, James and John may appear to be closer to Jesus, but maybe they just responded to His invitation for that closer, intimate friendship.

They were the only three who went into the home with Jesus, when He healed Peter’s mother in law. When going into the home of Jairus, Jesus sent all the others away, except His three disciples, who witnessed the resurrection of Jairus’ daughter. 

Instead of asking Jesus to bless what they were doing, His friends go where He is going and do whatever He is blessing. 

Those three disciples were not perfected in holiness. When they stayed with Jesus in the garden of Gethsemane, they all fell sound asleep, while trying to watch and pray with Him. Peter denied Jesus three times, but he later found forgiveness and was empowered at Pentecost. God sees us as we are, faults and all, but He still desires our friendship, just as He did with Peter, James and John. 

To forgive our friends’ offenses, we put ourself at risk of being offended again, but that is what God does. He knows if and when we are going to fail, but He forgives us over and over, as often as we return to Him again and again. It’s what true friendship is all about, and Jesus is the truest friend we will ever know. He believes in what we can become, and is always hoping that our friendship will grow deeper with Him. 

He said, “I no longer call you slaves, because a slave does not know what his master is doing. I have called you friends, because I have told you everything I have heard from my Father.” (John 15:15)

Whether He was sharing His tears and sweat in the garden, or sharing a small glimpse of heaven on the Mount of Transfiguration, Jesus wanted His friends to be with Him, through the good and bad times. Just as He shared His best and worst moments with His friends, He expects us to do the same by coming to Him with all our worries as well as our gratitude.

We all try to watch and pray with Jesus, and we also struggle with our weaknesses, in disappointing Him, but He doesn’t choose us based on our special qualities or look for redeemable characteristics. He loves us as we are and invites every believer to deepen our friendship with Him. He may wait for years for some people to respond. 

He is meek and gentle with His arms open, calling us to closer friendship. We all have friends and we have family, and some friends are more like family, which is a blessing, but Jesus is a friend like no other, because He knows us, like no other. 

Lord, we say yes to your love and your invitation to friendship. Thank you for always drawing us near, desiring us as we are, with all of our shortcomings, to be your close friends. Amen

“Every good thing given and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shifting shadow.”

James 1:17 ( NASB)

There was an interesting story on the news about a year ago. A young female rookie pilot was taking off in a small plane in Pontiac, Michigan. It was only her third solo flight. After she took off, a veteran pilot who was also about to take off, noticed that her front landing gear just fell off. He quickly contacted her by radio, introducing himself and telling the young pilot what just happened. Knowing it takes an experienced pilot to land a plane without its landing gear, with a calm and confident voice, he guided her step by step, helping her to make a safe landing. 

He later learned that the young pilot’s name was Taylor, which was also his own daughter’s name. Her voice was shaken but she followed his instructions as he calmly guided her, step by step. Afterward, Taylor said that it was his calm voice that helped her to follow his instructions and safely land her plane. If she had landed the plane on her own, it could have flipped upside down, resulting in a crash with injuries, and possibly bursting into flames. 

God intervenes and protects us in exceptional ways, sometimes by sending His invisible helpers, like angels, and sometimes by sending a qualified person, in the right moment, to guide us to safety.

When I heard this story on the news, I thought about how valuable that  calming voice of a veteran pilot was, who just happened to be in the right place at the right time. The whole event was miraculous. The experienced pilot being there at the right time, was the first miracle, and the second miracle was his ability to guide her to a safe landing. He had nerves of steel to calmly talk her through a dangerous situation and she had nerves of steel to follow his instructions, without freezing in panic.

All the right things had to line up with a successful ending like this. It’s the right person at the right time, and it all lined up too perfectly for it to be a coincidence. It was a gift from above. 

Scripture says that every good thing and every perfect gift is from above. Not some, but every good and perfect thing. If it’s good and perfect,  it came from God. We may think we are flying solo sometimes, but God is always watching, and if our landing gear falls off, a calming voice will redirect us back to a safe landing.

Jesus is our veteran pilot, having experienced every kind of adversity before we ever did. We may not have nerves of steel, but Jesus does. He sends us His good and perfect gifts, which may look like coincidences, but He has always been watching. 

In every stage or journey in our life, we have been on His radar, and He is calmly and softly speaking to the radio of our souls. When we commit our life into God’s hands, we start to see God’s hand in every part of our life.

Thank you Jesus, for looking out for us in the many ways that have been miracles, and not coincidences. Keep our hearts tuned in to your soft, calm voice, and lead us safely to our heavenly landing, so we may express our gratefulness for all eternity. Amen

“Not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect; but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own.”

Philippians 3:12 (RSV)

Every sport has a goalpost or a home base, that signifies a point of accomplishment. Just as in a game or a sport, our lives are filled with various goals. We may have physical fitness goals, educational goals, career goals, romantic goals or financial goals, throughout the different phases of our lives. 

There is a temporary sense of satisfaction in reaching any of these goals, but when something unexpected happens and a goal seem no longer attainable, due to a tragedy, an illness, or any type of loss, I know from experience, that it’s difficult to overcome feelings of  disillusionment. It’s a struggle to find hope and we may even start thinking that our best days are behind us, instead of ahead of us. 

That’s exactly what Satan wants us to believe. The enemy of our souls, wants to steal our joy, kill our faith and destroy our hope, but we trust in God, who loves us, and has good plans for us. He wants to lead us forward to fulfill the best, lasting and eternal goals He has for us.

We forget that the trials in our lives are just snapshots, not the whole story. God sees the whole picture, and He has His own goals for us too. His goals outlast the temporary problems we face. In spite of all the setbacks we see, God prepares us by grace, for our best unseen and more lasting goals. 

Paul tells us not to fix our eyes on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal. 

(2 Corinthians 4:18)

As we rely on God, He brings eternal beauty out of those temporary ashes in our lives. There is a rich and deep peace in knowing God loves us and calls us His own, and because He believes in us, He allows certain trials in our lives. He then uses those trials  to transform and shape us according to His wisdom, for our best eternal benefit.

Everyone is in a preparation process for eternity, whether we know it or not. We are eternal beings and were made for a greater purpose than to acquire things, reach our goals, leave a prestigious legacy, and then die. Of all the marks to leave in this world, the ones that mean the most, are the eternal ones. It’s the mark of our inner transformation by God, as we run to that finish line through faith in Jesus.

We are eternal beings, surrounded by a great cloud of eternal witnesses who are looking down from heaven and cheering us on, while we run this marathon race of faith throughout our lives. (Hebrews 12:1)

We occasionally need reminding that we are running a race, and are being observed by those witnesses above, who besides Jesus, includes all the heroes of faith who went before us, myriads of angels, and many deceased loved ones and friends. 

Since we are running a race, we fix our eyes on the finish line above. We strive for excellence with an eternal perspective, knowing we are in the process of meeting the goals God has for us. We make His goals our own, since He loved us first and called us His own.

Lord, seal our hearts as we run the race of faith, keeping our eyes on the things above, and we trust that your perfect plan is unfolding in each of our lives. Amen

“More than that, we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not disappoint us, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit which has been given to us.”

Romans 5:3-5 (RSV)

Whenever my brothers or I got hurt or injured as children while playing, the mantra my father repeated to us was, “You’re a Spartan.” He was from that area of Greece, known as Sparta, and Spartans are legendary for being highly resistant to the hardships of war, cold, hunger, thirst or pain. Partly legend and partly history, we learned that Spartan children were trained from an early age to be brave and enduring soldiers. 

We are all soldiers in Christ and the endurance of faith is the spiritual version of the physical endurance of legendary soldiers. We need perseverance and endurance to stand firm in faith, during hardship and pain, especially when trouble comes in like a flood. We are engaged in a daily battle for our faith. We need the same endurance of a veteran survivor to succeed in the spiritual army of God. 

I love to tell the true story of an 84 year old retired Navy seal, who survived for 26 hours in flood waters from the 2022 Hurricane Ian, in his Fort Meyers, Florida home. He was without food or water until he was rescued, and his own leather sofa became his lifeboat, while it floated on the flood waters in and around his home. 

He had a pre-existing cardiac health condition, which for some, might have triggered a heart attack, but he remained calm. He said he was never afraid because he was a veteran survivor, trained to withstand deep water, hunger, thirst, cold or pain. 

This brave 84 year old just waited patiently until rescue teams arrived and found him floating on his sofa. He was dehydrated and weary, but after a brief stay in a local hospital, he was discharged. A coworker shared this amazing true story with me, because that 84 year old is his father. I learned a valuable lesson from this Navy seal veteran, who had no fear of the flood waters because it’s what he had been trained for most of his life. Despite his age and poor cardiac health, he was a long time veteran of survival. 

We are also veteran survivors of faith. We suffer various trials and our faith has been repeatedly tested by the deep flood waters of spiritual warfare, pain, hunger, thirst or cold. We have survived many spiritual hurricanes that rushed in and overflowed our place of comfort and stability. It’s not our first test, because God, who brought us through it before, will do it again. 

Our training and preparation as survivors of faith, comes from years of testing and trials. When the flood waters rush in, we find a way to float on our lifeboat of hope and faith, until Jesus rescues us. We may be dehydrated and weary when our rescue comes, but we have gained the most valuable of all virtues, endurance. 

No other virtue can be sustained without endurance. Faith, hope or love have little value if they do not endure. Endurance, through tribulation, is what builds character and character brings hope, and we all need hope. We are spiritual veterans of survival until the day Jesus returns, and we are being trained and prepared through every tribulation we go through. 

Endurance is making us the veterans, Navy seals, Spartans and soldiers of our faith in Christ. We are led by the master of endurance, Jesus Christ, who brings us through all the flood waters in perfect peace. 

Lord, give us the strength of endurance, so that all other virtues will follow. Jesus, we trust in you. Amen

“When the two disciples heard him say this, they followed Jesus. Turning around, Jesus saw them following and asked, “What do you want?” They said, “Rabbi, where are you staying? “Come,” he replied, “and you will see.” So they went and saw where he was staying, and they spent that day with him. It was about four in the afternoon.”

John 1:37-39 (NIV)

As John the Baptist was preaching, Jesus walked by, and he said “Behold the Lamb of God.” Andrew was one of those two disciples who heard those words, and rose up to follow Jesus from that day forward. Later that day, he went to find his brother, Peter, and introduced him to Jesus. 

Hearing John’s description of Jesus, and just knowing about Him, was not enough for Andrew. He wanted to know Him for himself. He wanted to meet Jesus, fellowship with Him and simply hang out with Him. John, the writer of this gospel, made a point of mentioning the time of day, telling the readers that those two disciples were with Jesus from morning until 4:00 pm that afternoon. They were transformed after spending a full day with the Lamb of God, and they never returned to their former lifestyle.

Andrew and the other disciple walked behind Jesus, following Him until He turned and asked them what they wanted, but all they wanted was to go wherever Jesus was going. They asked Jesus where He stayed and Jesus invited them, saying “Come and see.”

If I could visualize myself walking behind Jesus, following Him, as those two disciples did, I would have thought He is too busy, with places to go and people to minister to, and yet Jesus stopped and turned to look at those two disciples. He invited them to come closer and see for themselves.

This is typical of Jesus, to see each of us personally, and He also intends for us to walk beside Him, instead of following from a distance. Jesus calls all of us His friends, not His servants. 

(John 15:15)

Imagine being those disciples as Jesus stops walking and looks at you. He invites you to “Come” and know Him, instead of knowing about Him. To get closer to Jesus means discovering that He has better plans for us, than we have for ourselves. When we get to know Him better, walking beside Him, He shares the thoughts of His heart with us. 

He calls everyone, saying, “Come closer, I’ve been waiting for you.” 

John, the apostle, who wrote this gospel, used to lay his head on Jesus wherever they rested. He was known for laying his head on Jesus’ chest, and Jesus invites all of us to do the same. When our head is on His chest, we forget our own anxieties while listening to His heart.

We can always come to Jesus when we feel burdened and stressed. He said to the crowd, “Come to me, all you who labor and are burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am meek and humble of heart; and you will find rest for yourselves. For my yoke is easy, and my burden light.”

(Matthew 11:28-30)

We can come to Him for a drink of living water, when we feel empty, dried up, and emotionally have nothing left to give to others. He said “Let anyone who thirsts, cometo me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as scripture says, Rivers of living water will flow from within him.” (John 7:37-38)

If we cast all our cares on Him and rest our weary heads on His heart, those rivers of living water will start flowing within us. I like the imagery of laying our head on His chest. It is a metaphor of leaving all our anxious thoughts upon His heart. As we listen to what is in His heart, He gives rest and peace. No one else can give us that kind of rest, not a friend, a lover, a parent or a life mentor. Each one must come and see for themselves.

Lord Jesus, we hear you calling us to come closer and see. We want to go wherever you go and lay our heads on your chest, listening to your heart. Help us to always walk beside you, all the days of our life. Amen

“You have searched me, Lord,
 and you know me. You know when I sit and when I rise; you perceive my thoughts from afar. You discern my going out and my lying down; you are familiar with all my ways. Before a word is on my tongue you, Lord, know it completely.“

Psalm 139:1-4 (NIV)

This scripture is comforting to realize God knows all of our thoughts before we speak. I have an example of this to share, although I hope I’m not boring people with repeated stories about the Nursing Facility or my son’s progress. 

Yesterday, as I usually do, at each visit, I was talking to Jon, trying to elicit a response from him, when he surprisingly took hold of my hand and then put it on his head, where his skull bone is missing. It was as if he was trying to ask me why his head was so misshapen. 

I told him what happened to him, that he had a motorcycle accident and a skull fracture, followed by brain surgery, a few months ago. I also told him that his skull bone would be replaced in a few months. He seemed to slightly nod his head yes, as if he understood me. 

That was an amazing moment, because it revealed that Jon has a thought process and is wondering about his condition. He was always touching his head and I assumed he had a headache. Now I realize he was feeling his skull and curious about the huge dent on the left side. When he purposely put my hand on his head, he was asking me what happened, and for the first time I think he understood what I said. 

 The psalm today is about how God perceives every one of our thoughts from afar. It doesn’t matter what our medical condition is, even without a single word spoken, the Lord knows our thoughts completely. Yesterday, the Lord let me know one of Jon’s thoughts. 

God wants to be in an intimate relationship with each one of us, every day, not just when we have problems. When we are worrying, He reads our thoughts anyway, so why not share everything with Him? Each time I would leave after visiting Jon, I would say to God, “If only he could communicate..” and yesterday he did, not in words but by a gesture.

I was more aware of God knowing my thoughts as well as communicating Jon’s thoughts to me. When we realize how God is reading our daily thoughts, it reminds us that He wants intimacy with all of us. Jesus never called us to an ordinary relationship with Him. To be in a relationship with Jesus, it must be an extraordinary one. 

There is nothing ordinary about Jesus or what He taught. He told us to speak to mountains and they will move. He told us not to worry about our material needs, but to seek first God’s kingdom. These are all extraordinary teachings.

He also said it’s not enough to love only those who love us, since that is ordinary. He taught us to love our enemies, and pray for those who persecute us, which is completely extraordinary. If we are asked to go a mile for someone, we are to go two. 

If someone strikes us on the face, He said to offer them our other cheek. His teachings are not ordinary, but crazy extraordinary.

If we are to live this extraordinary life, it needs to be done with daily intimacy and a personal relationship with Jesus, who taught all these things in the first place. We can do nothing without abiding in Him. This kind of intimacy starts by knowing that He is already reading our thoughts from afar. 

If we live knowing God is reading our thoughts, then we are living in His presence. To live in His presence, is to live in intimacy with Jesus. The Christian life was never meant to be ordinary. Jesus did an extraordinary sacrifice for us, He taught many extraordinary lessons and now He calls us to extraordinary living.

Lord, thank you for wanting to keep us close and to live in intimacy with you every day. As you read our daily thoughts, we pray you will share your thoughts with us and always direct our paths. Amen 

“So, too, it is written, “The first man, Adam, became a living being,” the last Adam a life-giving spirit.

But the spiritual was not first; rather the natural and then the spiritual.

The first man was from the earth, earthly; the second man, from heaven.”

1 Corinthians 15:45-47 (NAB)

About twenty years ago, I had a conversation with a doctor I had worked with for years, who had an inspirational experience leading him to return to his Jewish faith with greater devotion. He never shared what inspired him, but it was so intense that he planned on leaving the medical field completely, and devoting the rest of his life to studying Torah, the Jewish scriptures, and he joined a very strict religious group in Chicago. 

I felt a little inadequate, discussing the person of Jesus with him, considering his brilliance and passion for Jewish teaching, but somehow our conversation kept progressing in that direction anyway. I told him that I believed Jesus was the Messiah, the human incarnation of God, and he politely stopped me and said, “That would never happen, because God would never become a man.”

When I asked him why he was so sure of that, he said that the heart of the commandments is to not make or worship any graven image, so God would never do something that is contrary to His own commandments. 

I tried reminding him that the prophet Isaiah predicted that a virgin would bear a child, whose name is “God with us,” a divine person, yet born in human form. He continued to shake his head no, saying that even if God could do such a thing, He never would do it. Mosaic laws were clearly a stumbling block for him, preventing belief in an incarnation. 

Our discussion ended there, although I still think about what he said, even to this day.

If I could continue that conversation with him now, I would like to say that God had a plan to send His Son into the world long before He wrote any commandments. He planned it from the first day that sin was committed in the Garden of Eden. 

The first Adam and Eve brought sin into the world, and sin brought us death, but God’s plans have an eternal purpose. It was His plan long before the commandments were ever written. He promised long ago in the Garden, to send the offspring of a woman, to save us and destroy the head of the serpent forever. 

(Genesis 3:15)

He had a plan to send a new Eve through Mary, and the second divine Adam, through Jesus, who was born through a divine-human conception in her womb. Paul teaches that the earthly precedes the heavenly. The first Adam came from the earth and the second Adam, Jesus, came from heaven.  (1 Corinthians 15:47)

A baby conceived by the Spirit of God in a human womb, is no graven image. He is not made by the hands of man, or in the ordinary way life is conceived. He is not an idol made of gold or carved in stone. He is God’s divine son, conceived by His Spirit in the untouched human womb of Mary.

This plan was a mystery for ages, yet was briefly hinted at long ago in the Garden story in Genesis. Paul even refers to it as “the plan of the mystery hidden for ages in God who created all things.” (Ephesians 3:9)

The most important component of the incarnation is -Grace. Without grace, we could only think and reason in terms of satisfying rules or commandments to earn rewards or punishments. Grace changed all of that. 

Grace is giving something to someone that they don’t deserve, and cannot be earned. Grace gives us forgiveness and a relationship with God through Jesus. Once someone experiences amazing grace, it’s easy to believe in the divine incarnation. 

Grace outmatches the productivity of our sin, and that’s why it’s so amazing. Why would God do all of this for us? He tells us, “God so loved the world that he gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.” (John 3:16)

God makes plans because He loves us so much, and He started planning since that day in the Garden. His plan for salvation began long before the giving of the commandments and He sent the second Adam at the perfect time, who was born in Bethlehem. 

I disagree with my doctor friend who asserted that God could, but would never become a man. God could and did become a man, when He left His throne in heaven to suffer and carry a cross for us, and it’s all because of His immense love and amazing grace.

Lord Jesus, we thank you and we pray for all people who do not see the beauty and truth that you are the second Adam, the incarnate Son of God. We pray that your Holy Spirit reveals saving grace and love to people of all faiths today. Amen

“Call on me in the day of trouble;
I will deliver you, and you will honor me.”

Psalm 50:15 (NIV)

I may sound repetitious but I’ve had remarkable results this week in praying, “Jesus, I surrender this situation to you, take care of everything.”

Now that I have the legal papers as Jon’s permanent guardian, I brought them to the bank, assuming I would be given the right to pay Jon’s legal bills as well as other expenses from his account. I hit a roadblock when the bank informed me that the situation is more complicated than they first thought. 

The only account my son had was established as a business account and they said that my guardianship doesn’t give me access to his business account. They said even if they closed the account the check would have to be made payable to the business name. They seemed to leave me in a stalemate situation. 

I asked the banker how can this ever be resolved, since Jon is disabled and cannot speak or care for his own estate? Silvia, the banker said she felt bad but that it was out of her hands, since it’s what the legal department told her. 

I had prayed before going to the bank that day, asking Jesus to take care of everything, so when I heard this answer, I said to the Lord in my mind, “Lord, please let your will be done and take care of everything.” 

I felt peace thinking that God may have a better plan ahead, that I don’t yet understand. I continued thinking, if worse comes to worse, I will call my lawyer, and incur more legal fees, but hopefully will get this problem solved. 

Just then, Silvia, the banker, said “Wait, I’m going to call our legal dept once more, maybe a different person in that department will have more insight and help to find a better solution.” 

I thought, wow, it’s sure nice of Silvia to have so much compassion about trying to solve this problem. She was the one blessing I could see up to this point in the whole situation.

Silvia made the call and spoke to a totally different person in their legal department, who requested all the documents be sent for their review. Then that person forwarded everything to the head of their legal department, who is over all the bank branches. Silvia assured me that either she or someone will get back to me with an answer. 

That evening I received a call from the bank, saying that they will be able to close the business account and open a new account with my name as his guardian. 

After hanging up the phone I looked up and said, “Thank you Lord for taking care of everything.”

I thought of all the phone calls that were made, Silvia calling her legal department twice, and the legal department calling their legal expert over all the branches, and then the decision was finally made. 

Of all the calls being made over this whole issue, the most important call of all, was the one I made to Jesus, before I ever went to the bank that day. 

In times of trouble, our first call needs to be made to Jesus. I called Him, and He did deliver me, by working in the hearts and minds of every bank employee and person involved in the decision making. 

I am learning what surrendering everything to Jesus is all about, and now I love the prayer, “Jesus, I surrender myself to you, take care of everything.” It’s a prayer that brings amazing results. Today, I praise and honor Him for taking care of everything.

Lord, you will always deliver us when we call on you first. Remind us to make our first call to you. We praise you and thank you for always being ready to hear our call and deliver us from all our troubles. Amen

“He was oppressed, and he was afflicted,
yet he opened not his mouth;
like a lamb that is led to the slaughter,
and like a sheep that before its shearers is dumb,
so he opened not his mouth.”

Isaiah 53:7 (RSV)

Isaiah described a suffering, silent Messiah. Jesus always spoke boldly and was not afraid to tell the truth, but there is a time for bold speech and a time to remain silent. 

Beginning with His arrest and suffering, Jesus fulfilled the image of Isaiah’s silent lamb. He did not open up His mouth, except for a few potent phrases. There is peace in walking silently with Jesus, during the hard times in our lives.

Jesus barely answered Herod or Pilate. He carried His cross silently, enduring the ridicule and insults of those who mocked, beat and spat upon Him. He didn’t seek to be vindicated, yet His silence was powerful. He never stopped praying for His enemies, as well as His friends.

All the treasures of wisdom and knowledge are hidden in Him, and He fulfilled over 300 messianic prophecies from scripture. There is a comfort in knowing that God’s purpose and plan was perfectly fulfilled, down to the timing and the details. 

As I meditate on these truths, it gives me peace to focus on the words that Jesus did say while on the cross. 

He asked God to forgive all His enemies. He forgave the thief next to Him, assuring him entry into heaven. When he cried out to God, asking why He was forsaken, He was quoting from David’s Psalm 22, which is packed with Messianic prophecies. Those prophecies were fulfilled, down to the details of pierced hands and feet, as well as casting lots for His garments.

Jesus entrusted the care of His mother to John, the disciple He was closest to. Finally, He said, “It is finished.” His silence was broken by His resurrection, three days later, and He promises eternal life to all who believe that He is Lord. He completed the sacrifice on the cross, as both lamb of God and high priest, and He now lives to intercede for us. 

Meditating on His final words brings His presence nearer and we can find a mysterious peace in our silence. While we are carrying our cross, Jesus is real, and walking beside us. He knows everything we feel, and as we surrender ourselves to Him, He will take care of everything. 

Jesus, we thank you for walking with us through everything, and we trust in your resurrection power, which fills us with your comfort, strength peace and love. Amen