Tag: testify

Faithfulness in Every Season of Life

1 Chronicles 7-9 

Psalm 71

Galatians 3

~ Devotion by Cayce Fletcher (SC)

Cayce Fletcher is a wife and homeschool mom of three. She writes and podcasts at amorebeautifullifecollective.com where she helps women grow in grace, build with purpose, and live beautifully. Read the latest post in the Systematic Theology series here. 

My family always loved musicals, like Hello Dolly, The Wizard of Oz, and of course, the Disney classics. One special favorite was Fiddler on the Roof, and sometimes, we couldn’t help but jump up and dance around the room when a few of the songs came on. 

One of the most famous songs from that movie came to mind when I was reading through today’s passages. The parents are preparing for their children’s marriages, and while they were watching the processional, they sang the following words: 

“Sunrise, sunset

Sunrise, sunset

Swiftly flow the days

Seedlings turn overnight to sunflowers

Blossoming even as we gaze

Sunrise, sunset

Sunrise, sunset

Swiftly fly the years

One season following another

Laden with happiness and tears”

Psalm 71, an anonymous Psalm (but potentially written by King David during Absalom’s rebellion), speaks of a similar sentiment. Only this writer is not focusing on the fleetingness of life, but on how God is there for us in every stage of our lives. 

He speaks of his childhood in verse 6 when he says, “I have leaned on you from birth; you took me from my mother’s womb.” About the present, he says in verse 17, “God, you have taught me from my youth, and I still proclaim your wondrous works.”  As he looks forward to the future, he says in verse 18, “Even while I am old and gray, God, do not abandon me, while I proclaim your power to another generation, your strength to all who are to come.”

We see the psalmist’s faithfulness to God in the past, present, and future. From ‘sunrise to sunset’, they are leaning on God. Their commitment to God compounds, multiplying as the generations continue to us, who are reading their words today. 

I’ve come to realize that a legacy is made like a chain. When we are strong in our faith and commitment to God, we create a strong link. We are tied to the people that come before us and the future generations that come after us. Time is fleeting, but we can create a lasting impact with our lives when we choose faithfulness in our daily lives. 

What does this look like? We actually see an example nestled in the genealogies we read today. In 1 Chronicles 9, the chronicler notes what happened during the Babylonian exile. When the Israelites returned, one of their primary objectives was to rebuild the temple and begin temple worship – something they had deeply missed during their years in exile. 

In verses 3-21, the priests, Levites, and temple workers were listed. Verse 13 describes them as “capable men employed in the ministry of God’s temple.” According the Enduring Word commentary, “this same phrase is translated mighty men of valor in many other Old Testament passages (Joshua 1:14, Judges 6:12, 1 Samuel 16:18, and many others). It shows that when it came to doing the work of the service of the house of God, it takes a man of strength and courage, the same qualities that are needed in a warrior.” 

Each group was on duty, day and night, guarding the temple, caring for the temple, baking bread, and making music. They all had their own jobs based on gifting and tradition, but they all fulfilled them to the best of their ability, to the glory of God. 

Interestingly, the ‘mighty men of valour’ is not the only callback to the past. Verse 22 references how David and Samuel had instituted the temple worship with these groups, and verse 20 takes it back even further to Phinehas, Aaron’s son. We see how the legacy of the temple workers was created in the past and carried forward for hundreds of years. 

The key to this faithful legacy is found in verse 20. It says that the Lord was with Phinehas. Psalm 71 reiterates this. In his prayers, the psalmist says that God has been with him every step of the way, through trials and through rejoicing. We place our trust in God, we live our lives faithfully, and like the psalmist, God’s great works in our lives brings us to “tell about your righteousness and your salvation all day long, though I cannot sum them up” (Ps. 71:15). 

Reflection Questions

  1. It is a beautiful truth to remember that God will be with us in the past, present, and future. What is one moment that you can point to recently that is evidence of God’s faithfulness? 
  2. Why was the reinstatement of temple worship so important for the returning Jews? 
  3. What can we learn from the description of the temple workers? 

Prayer

Lord, 

Thank you so much for how you have been with me since I was a young girl. Please continue to be with me as I live and work. May all I do bring glory to you. 

In Jesus’ name,

Amen.

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Another Kind of Healing – When Pigs Fly

Mark 5:1-19

(But no one is stopping you from reading the whole chapter)

How many of you have ever seen a scary movie? I don’t recommend them. Being scared is not fun, but sometimes we can’t help being scared. Today we’re going to talk about something scary, but fear not! This devotion has a happy ending.

In this segment of Mark, we see Jesus healing another man, but this time, he is casting out demons. This wasn’t an ordinary casting out of demons either. This man that Jesus encountered had an unclean spirit that consisted of thousands of demons (5:9).  The man had been so out of his right mind that he was cast out of normal society and forced to live in a cave where people had tried to chain him up, but not even chains could hold this man down. He would scream and cut himself day and night (5:5). This man is clearly not okay. Yet Jesus still let the man seek him out.

Notice how Jesus is being approached by a man that can literally break chains, but he doesn’t seem to be worried. That is exactly how we should feel knowing that we have the God of Jesus on our side, too. The demons in this man fear Jesus and respect his authority. It says in verse 13 that Jesus “gave them permission.” They obey Jesus! Now the next part of the story is a little weird, but it is very important. The demons went into a herd of pigs and subsequently flew off a cliff. Okay, maybe they didn’t fly, but it’s still an odd thing for pigs to do.

This story is a little different from the story of the blind man that we looked at yesterday. The man who was healed in this story didn’t have a physical impairment; he was healed of a sickness of the mind. These kinds of sicknesses can be even scarier than the kind that affect us physically. One such mental sickness that has become very prominent lately is depression. I know firsthand just how many people suffer from depression these days, especially teenagers, so I want to share with you the story of when I saw pigs fly.

When I was younger, I had a close friend who suffered from severe depression and harmed herself in ways like the man that Jesus healed. Many times we think that self-harm is unique to our generation but this story really says otherwise. This was a really painful experience for me just by knowing that my friend was going through this. I urged my friend to talk to a trusted adult and to see a doctor because I knew that I was not qualified to counsel on this subject. However, there was one way that I was able to help. I offered my prayers. Prayer became a constant for me in this period of my life. I wanted nothing more than to see my friend freed of this demon, her depression. One day, I wanted to pray with my friend, so we went out to a park and sat together praying for hours. I remember my prayer: “God, I know that you have the power to cast out demons. Cast out this demon.” After repeating this many times, my friend looked up and I could see a difference in her eyes. Pigs flew, and her depression has never bothered her since then.

I don’t know whether an actual demon was involved in this story, but depression certainly acts like a demon, taking over your thoughts and actions. Whatever the cause of depression may be, our God is bigger and more powerful and there isn’t anything in this world that disobeys His command.

Don’t forget the ending of the story in Mark. After the man was healed, he wanted to follow Jesus, but he was turned down. Jesus told the man to go back to his family and testify to them. This is just like what we saw in John yesterday. After you are healed, Jesus wants you to make sure that the people you know can see that you really were healed.

Tomorrow I am going to go into the role that modern medicine plays into the healing that we can receive from God.
-Nathaniel Johnson