Sunday, February 9, 2025

Feed on His Faithfulness

Read these first installments of the ongoing 30-part devotional series Feed on His Faithfulness, based on Psalms 37, right here on Strike the Jordan!

A ROACH OR TWO - "Feed on His Faithfulness" Devotional #2

"Do not fret...trust in the Lord...and feed on His faithfulness. He shall bring forth your righteousness as the light, and your justice as the noonday."
– Psalms 37:1-6 (NKJV, excerpts)
 
In the middle of the dais was a great gilded chair. Upon it sat a man so bent with age that he seemed almost a dwarf; but his white hair was long and thick and fell in great braids from beneath a thin golden circlet set on his brow.... His beard was laid like snow upon his knees; but his eyes still burned with a bright light glinting as he gazed at the strangers.

At length Gandalf spoke. "Hail, Théoden son of Thengel! I have returned."

The old man rose to his feet, leaning heavily on a short black staff ... "I greet you ..." he said, "but truth to tell your welcome is doubtful here, Master Gandalf. You have ever been a herald of woe.... Why should I welcome you, Gandalf Stormcrow?  Tell me that."  Slowly he sat down again in his chair.

"You speak justly, lord," said a pale man sitting upon the steps of the dais. "Even now we learn from Gondor that the Dark Lord is stirring in the East. Such is the hour in which this wanderer chooses to return.  Why indeed should we welcome you, Master Stormcrow? Láthspell I name you—Ill-News..." He laughed grimly, as he lifted his heavy lids for a moment and gazed on the strangers with dark eyes.

Then suddenly [Gandalf] changed. Casting his tattered cloak aside ... he spoke in a clear cold voice.... "Grima son of Gálmod, a witless worm you have become.  Therefore be silent, and keep your forked tongue between your teeth.

He raised his staff.  There was a roll of thunder ... the fire faded to sullen embers.  There was a flash as if lightning had cloven the roof.  Then all was silent.  [Grima] Wormtongue sprawled on his face.

"Now Théoden son of Thengel, will you hearken to me?" said Gandalf.  "Do you ask for help?"  He lifted his staff and pointed to a high window.  There the darkness seemed to clear, and through the opening could be seen, high and far, a patch of shining sky.  "Not all is dark.  Take courage, Lord of the Mark.... I bid you come out before your doors and look abroad.  Too long have you sat in shadows and trusted to twisted tales and crooked promptings."

Slowly Théoden left his chair.  A faint light grew in the hall again.... With faltering steps the old man came down from the dais and paced softly through the hall.  Wormtongue remained lying on the floor....  The doors rolled back and a keen air came whistling in.

"Now, lord," said Gandalf, "look out upon your land!  Breathe the free air again!"

"It is not so dark here," said Théoden."

"No," said Gandalf, "Nor does age lie so heavily on your shoulders as some would have you think.  Cast aside your prop!"

"Dark have been my dreams of late," [Théoden] said, "but I feel as one new-awakened."
― From The Two Towers (1954) Chapter VI (excerpts), by J.R.R. Tolkien
* * *

A wise old preacher once said, "We never grasp just how far Man has fallen till we start the journey back."
  
So, as we begin this devotional ascent from the pits of endless stress into the glorious freedom of peace and joy in the Holy Spirit, it is essential that we understand what brought on the stress in the first place and how to avoid sliding right back into that gloomy place so we have to repeat the journey over and over again.

When Adam and Eve had their Great Fall, they—and all of us with them—tumbled into a chasm of Sin so unfathomably deep and hopeless that only our Lord Jesus could lift us out.  His nail-scarred hands "brought us out of darkness into His marvelous light," hallelujah! (I Peter 2:9)  If we've put our trust in Jesus for the forgiveness of our sins and made a commitment to follow Him, then we are SAVED.  No question about it.

And yet, bringing us out of Sin and darkness does not altogether get the darkness OUT OF US.  It's a process—a "journey back."  In Paul's words, "Being confident of this very thing, that He who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ." (Philippians 1:6)  Praise God, He WILL complete it because He is FAITHFUL.  He will keep peeling off layers of our dark, sinful nature on a daily basis until the day we stand before Him.  Let us then be educated from the pages of Scripture about the journey, feed on His faithfulness—that is, trust Him to get us there—and keep walking "in the light as He is in the light" to experience His cleansing grace every step of the way. (I John 1:7)

Back to King Théoden.  When he rose from his throne in the presence of Gandalf and his companions, Tolkien tells us, "The strangers saw that, bent though he was, he was still tall and must in youth have been high and proud indeed."  Yet, here he stood, a miserable shell of a man, tormented with dark dreams and crushed by despair.  As we learn from the narrative, this was all due to Théoden's choice of a counselor, Grima Wormtongue, who drained the king of all hope and replaced it with melancholy, dysphoria, despair, and (very nearly) death.

When I was six, my father was a pastor and missionary, and our family spent a year or two traversing the U.S. "Bible Belt" states visiting dozens of churches.  Those dear people, who were hospitable to a fault, would often lodge us in a "parsonage"—typically a small building detached from the church, which stood unoccupied except for rare occasions when someone like us needed a place to stay.  You would expect such lodgings to be musty and need a bit of airing out.  But the real fun was always after sundown.  That's when you'd walk into the kitchen and flip on the light.  Sure enough, fifty or more cockroaches, of all sizes and breeds, would simultaneously emit a startled little shriek and vanish into the nearest crevice in the floor or baseboard.  (OK, I may have just imagined the shriek.)

Obviously, there don't nobody invite roaches into their home!  But in southern latitudes, if your home is devoid of light and life for any length of time, one or two of these critters is sure to find a way in.  They consume any bits of food you may have around, raise a family, and generally pollute the place with their unholy conduct.

Our spiritual house is no different.  "Do you not know that you are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you?" (I Corinthians 3:16)  But, when we neglect to "walk in the light as He is in the light," we evict the Holy Spirit from certain rooms of our temple—telling Him, "Sorry, this one's off limits. I can manage this part of my life quite nicely, thank You!"  And what follows should come as no surprise.  Grima Wormtongue and his tribe of roaches show up in that dark place.  They eat away at our faith and replace it with fearful thoughts, dark dreams, stress, fear, anxiety, and DESPAIR.

John 3:19-21 tells us, "...Light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. For everyone practicing evil hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed. But he who does the truth comes to the light, that his deeds may be clearly seen, that they have been done in God."

See, when it comes to mapping and navigating life's journey, if it's not "done in God," then it's self-reliance.  Self-reliance begets poor choices.  Which beget wickedness.  Which begets self-absorption and bondage to vice.  Which begets fretting, faithlessness, stress, worry, and ultimately DESPAIR.

But when we ask the Holy Spirit, "Please, throw open every sealed room in this temple and flood it with Your holy presence and light!" the result is that we walk in His light and our deeds are "done in God."  And God-reliance ("feeding on His faithfulness") begets wise choices.  Which begets righteousness.  Which leads to Christ-centeredness and a desire to serve the God we love.  Which begets peace, faith, trust, and ultimately RADIANT JOY!

"But I am like a green olive tree in the house of God; I trust in the mercy of God forever and ever. I will praise You forever, because You have done it; and in the presence of Your saints I will wait on Your name, for it is good." (Psalms 52:8-9)

"Arise, shine; for your light has come! And the glory of the Lord is risen upon you. For behold, the darkness shall cover the earth, and deep darkness the people; but the Lord will arise over you, and His glory will be seen upon you. The Gentiles shall come to your light, and kings to the brightness of your rising. Then you shall see and become radiant, and your heart shall swell with joy..." (Isaiah 60:1-3,5a)

When Gandalf arrived in Théoden's palace (though unwelcome at first due to the "roaches"), he brought light that dissipated all stress and despair, replacing it with hope and RADIANT JOY.
 
Let us intentionally carve out time on a weekly—if possible, a DAILY—basis to spend in His presence soaking in the light of His Word, in prayer, and listening for His still, small voice to guide and inform our journey.  Because only in His presence do we find the "path of life," which leads to "fulness of joy." (Psalms 16:11)

Why not pray ...  

"Dear Father,
Forgive me for entertaining roaches unawares in the temple of my spirit—resulting in perpetual stress and unholy fear.  Please throw open every room, fill it with Your presence.  May Your 'glory be seen upon' me. May Your Holy Spirit 'bring forth [my] righteousness as the light, and justice as the noonday. (Psalms 37:6)'  Help me journey back—from fear, to faith, to radiant joy in Jesus Christ my Lord and King.
In Jesus' name. Amen."

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Originally published as a “Bradstix” devotional on the National Minute of Prayer Facebook page 2/9/2025.

Copyright © Brad Fenichel 2025 All Rights Reserved

Sunday, January 26, 2025

ARE WE GOING UP ... OR SEIZING UP? - "Feed on His Faithfulness" Devotional #1

 
"DO NOT FRET..."
– Psalms 37:1a (NKJV)
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Towns had put the cartridges back into the Coffman starter, trying ... to work up some faith in the machine before morning. These cartridges at least were real; they would turn the engine, and the engine would run. Maybe at full revs the big Thorne and Crossley prop would somehow manage to drag the whole heap of junk across the sand on its skids until they ran into a water point.

He’d asked Stringer, “Why do we have to risk getting airborne? We could just taxi out, all the way.”

“I don’t think you mean it seriously, Mr. Towns. I should remind you that the coolant system is designed to operate chiefly at cruising airspeed, therefore the engine would overheat and seize up within ten miles or so, leaving us a hundred and fifty miles short of the nearest oasis.  Also the skids wouldn’t stand up to the continuous shock; I have designed them to withstand one take-off and one landing, and their calculated life is approximately one minute....  This airplane has been designed to fly, Mr. Towns. It isn’t a toy to be wound up and sent along the floor.”
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Who are these people?  Why are they (apparently) stranded in a great desert with a junked airplane?  Will they ever reach a “water point” alive?
 
Sorry, no spoilers!  Read The Flight of the Phoenix, by Elleston Trevor, 1964. (No—not the movie! The book!)
 
But, the point is that Frank Towns—former pilot of what's now the “heap of junk”—seems to have momentarily forgotten the key difference between a dune buggy and an airplane: that the latter is designed for three-dimensional travel. (Translation: flight!) It simply cannot “taxi out” for any significant distance without self-destructing. It must go up! It was created to go up.
 
You may have guessed by now that this post isn’t all about aeronautics. So, then… As a disciple of Jesus, there is nothing more vital for me than to hear from the Master. I need His guidance with day-to-day decisions, and I need a revelation of the unique plans and roles, the unique mission, that He has for me.  And, most importantly, I need the wherewithal to get it all DONE.
 
But all too often, I bounce along the desert floor with only a vague sense of His will, striving to get it all done in my own power, and blundering into every dune and sandstorm along the way.  I must go up!  I was created for three-dimensional travel.  And yet ... days turn into weeks, weeks into years, and altitude is still zero. Just when I think I’m on the verge of accomplishing something meaningful for God ... oo-pphhhhh! Another mouthful of sand!  Failure. Stress. Anger.  I’m seizing up!
 
At the time of this devotional post, we're about four weeks into January.  Most of our New Year's resolutions have seized up, and we're sitting 150 miles short of the nearest water point, right?  Well, David, the “man after God’s own heart,” knew something about connecting with the purposes of God and GETTING THINGS DONE.  His Psalm 37 is a precious and timeless message on the principles of "WAIT ON THE LORD," "do not fret" (in our modern vernacular: "DON'T STRESS OUT"), and "TRUST GOD TO CARRY YOU THROUGH."

In fact, these aren't just "oh, by-the-way" suggestions.  On the contrary, they are bedrock eternal truths that ring out again and again across the pages of Scripture.  

- Isaiah 40:31 tells us that if we WAIT ON THE LORD, He enables us to soar like an eagle, run without fatigue, and walk without tiring.  All of which speaks of a supernatural suspension of forces in the spiritual realm analogous to the physical law of GRAVITY.

- Matthew 11:28-30 is our Lord Christ's command to all who are weary and HEAVY-laden (STRESSED OUT) to come to Him for rest.  He invites us to yield our neck to be hitched into His yoke--His purposes, His WORKLOAD--which at first seems counterintuitive.  But it comes with a solemn promise that we'll find it surprisingly EASY and LIGHT!  Yet another suspension of the GRAVITY principle through the power of Him who works in and through us to will and to DO His good purposes.

Dear Christian, we ignore these powerful principles--which span both Old and New Testaments--to our own detriment.  New Year's resolutions ... any-time-of-year resolutions, for that matter ... even if they are sincerely based on what we understand as God's will for our lives, lead only to fretting, stress, burn-out, and SEIZING UP.  
 
But when we release ourselves from the expectation of accomplishing one iota of His will in our own power, when we instead let Him hitch us up alongside Him in His yoke, that is when all the forces of spiritual GRAVITY are nullified because He is the one doing the work--alongside us and THROUGH us.

This is the first in a series of 30 posts, entitled "Feed on His Faithfulness," where we will explore the exciting promises of Psalm 37 and related Scriptures.  We'll find PRACTICAL steps to DE-STRESS our Christian lives and rediscover the JOY of the journey, as we wait on the Lord and grow our trust (faith) in Him to carry us through--in HIS time, in HIS way, and for HIS glory, hallelujah!

Why not pray ...  

"Dear Father,
Forgive me for the besetting sins of fretting, stressing, and burning out.  Remind me each time I'm tempted to "taxi out all the way" that You designed me instead to GO UP.  That I MUST go up or seize up!  Help me break the cycle.  Hitch me to Your yoke, that I may find rest for my soul in You, and You alone.
In Jesus' name. Amen."

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Originally published as a “Bradstix” devotional on the National Minute of Prayer Facebook page 1/26/2025.

Copyright © Brad Fenichel 2025 All Rights Reserved