Cut the rope of fear!
(This week’s devotions are based on Sunday’s message: Win the Day…Cut the Rope – LISTEN HERE)
I am 6’8” and in my previous ministry was asked on occasion to come in the preschool and kindergarten rooms to aid in the acting out of David and Goliath. Guess who I got to be…dead every time!
The familiar Bible story of David and Goliath certainly is an account of the power of God at work…in the heart of and through the actions of David. The details of the account are a vivid reminder of how fear can create timidity and timidity keeps us from acting boldly and living in confident trust.
Here’s the highlights of what happened:
1 Samuel 17:10 4-7, 10-11, 16 A champion named Goliath, who was from Gath, came out of the Philistine camp. He was over nine feet tall. 5 He had a bronze helmet on his head and wore a coat of scale armor of bronze weighing five thousand shekels; 6 on his legs he wore bronze greaves, and a bronze javelin was slung on his back. 7 His spear shaft was like a weaver’s rod, and its iron point weighed six hundred shekels.
Then the Philistine said, “This day I defy the ranks of Israel! Give me a man and let us fight each other.” 11 On hearing the Philistine’s words, Saul and all the Israelites were dismayed and terrified.
16 For forty days the Philistine came forward every morning and evening and took his stand.
For forty days…over one month the Philistine defied the army of Israel and challenged one from among them to fight him in a winner take all contest. Was there boldness or courage in the ranks of King Saul? Nope. The size and brashness of Goliath instilled dismay and terror in the hearts of the Israelite ranks.
How long would this fear have paralyzed the army? Who knows.
Because David showed up and through David, God showed up!
David was sent to check on his brothers and bring them supplies. As he was in the camp of Israel he experienced the taunts of Goliath. But David’s response was different than the army of Israel. He didn’t dismay. He didn’t give in to terror. He responded with trust!
1 Samuel 17:32 David said to Saul, “Let no one lose heart on account of this Philistine; your servant will go and fight him.”
- 33 Saul replied, “You are not able to go out against this Philistine and fight him; you are only a boy, and he has been a fighting man from his youth.”
- 34 But David said to Saul, “Your servant has been keeping his father’s sheep. When a lion or a bear came and carried off a sheep from the flock, 35 I went after it, struck it and rescued the sheep from its mouth. When it turned on me, I seized it by its hair, struck it and killed it. 36 Your servant has killed both the lion and the bear; this uncircumcised Philistine will be like one of them, because he has defied the armies of the living God. 37 The LORD who delivered me from the paw of the lion and the paw of the bear will deliver me from the hand of this Philistine.”
David was willing to cut the rope of fear because he had the power and presence of God on which to rely. God had been with him in the past. In his mind it was a very real truth that God would help him take out the giant Philistine.
And God did.
When the Spirit of God replaces timidity with trust, we can cut the rope of fear and move forward into the challenges of life with the confidence that the Lord will give us the victory!
Apply: What fear is preventing you from moving forward? What promise of God overcomes that fear and changes your timidity into trust?
Prayer: Lord, with your help, lead me to cut the ropes of limitations, human security and fear and live in your possibilities, the security of your promises, and the confident trust in your power. AMEN.
Cut the Rope…Experience the Rewards!
No Risk…no reward.
Taking a risk carries consequences. When you meet with your financial advisor, many have a “risk tolerance” survey that asks you to determine what type of financial roller coaster you can tolerate. Some take a high risk portfolio that allows the ups and downs to be much steeper. Others take a low risk portfolio that mitigates the down hills, but the up side is not as steep either.
Every risk has a potential for loss. But usually eventually a risk brings a reward greater than if one hadn’t taken the risk.
Elisha Otis took a risk. If his contraption failed at the World’s Fair in New York, his fledgling company would have been out of business. However, he was willing to take the risk and it paid off. The Otis Elevator Company is still in business world-wide today.
The same is true in our life of faith.
We can play it safe. We can keep our faith to ourselves and rarely have conflict or challenging conversations with people. We can talk about it at home and keep it private in other places.
But with low risk, there is little opportunity for reward.
When the Word remains silent, the opportunity for the Spirit to do big things diminishes.
For example, the disciples huddled together for 10 days after Jesus left the earth (to be fair, they were told to do this). They had kept to themselves and a few interactions with Jesus after the resurrection. You don’t hear of new converts, but you hear of a small group just over 100 staying together in Jerusalem. You hear of their aversion to risk as they stayed locked up for fear of the Jews.
Until the Spirit of God empowered them to take a risk, a calculated step of faith.
Peter, who denied Jesus 50 days earlier, stands up and addresses the crowd with clarity and conviction. The same people that crucified Jesus were there. They could have turned on him. But the risk of speaking up was rewarded by 3000 gifts of God’s grace…3000 hearts were changed and brought into the family of God through baptism.
But it didn’t stop there.
The boldness and result of the one risk turned into a willingness to daily take a risk by meeting in the temple courts, openly discussing and proclaiming the truth of Jesus. Again, the hostility against Jesus hadn’t fully evaporated. It was still very real. But the risk taken turned into a reward given.
Acts 2:46 Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, 47 praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.
Daily the Lord added a reward of grace because of the believer’s willingness to take a risk for the Lord.
It’s not always safe. It’s not always easy. But the risks we take for the Lord return with gracious rewards of grace. Take a risk…see how the Lord rewards it!
Apply: What risk for the Lord has been on your heart? Ask the Spirit of God for boldness to act on it!
Prayer: Lord, forgive me for when I play it safe with my faith for fear of repercussions. Grant me the power of your Spirit to take risks of faith to be turned into rewards of grace for the growth of your kingdom and the glory of your name. AMEN.
Cut the Rope of Security!
(This week’s devotions are based on Sunday’s message: Win the Day…Cut the Rope – LISTEN HERE)
Are you a risk taker?
Most polls of Americans indicate that a majority of people are risk-averse. People want a safe, secure path on which to travel. Many stay in a job because it provides stability in life and income. Most investors choose safer and more reliable returns on investment rather than vehicles that have a higher risk. Many don’t travel or move because of the risk of the change.
The old saying is true, “No risk…no reward.”
But too often we are willing to compromise the reward because we don’t want to take the risk.
Elisha Otis took a risk. When he stood three stories off the floor at the World’s Fair, he was counting on his security mechanism to catch the lift before it plummeted to the floor. Until people saw the rope cut and the lift catch after only falling a very short distance were people willing to purchase an Otis elevator and have it put in their building.
To be sure, Otis took a calculated risk. He had developed and tested the mechanism to ensure it worked. So when he put it on display for the crowds at the world’s fair he took a risk, but a calculated one.
In our Christian life we can be risk averse. We can play it safe and not let it be known too far and wide that we are a Christ-follower. We don’t want to lose a friendship, lose a relationship or lose a job because people find us to be Christians. We evaluate the risk of letting on we are a follower of Christ and can easily give into the risk and keep our faith to ourselves.
Let’s allow three men from the Old Testament to encourage us to take a risk, to cut the rope of our personal securities and rely on the promises and truth of God’s promises. Shadrach, Meshack, and Abednego took a calculated step of faith. They were faced with denying the Lord or burning in the furnace. They knew and trusted their relationship with the Lord and so they were willing to risk defying Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon. Here’s what happened:
Daniel 3:16 Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego replied to the king, “O Nebuchadnezzar, we do not need to defend ourselves before you in this matter. 17 If we are thrown into the blazing furnace, the God we serve is able to save us from it, and he will rescue us from your hand, O king. 18 But even if he does not, we want you to know, O king, that we will not serve your gods or worship the image of gold you have set up.”
The calculated step of faith was a risk, but it was a risk based on the time-tested, promises of God and putting the priority of the Lord first in their lives. The reward? Not only did the three survive, but the presence of God was realized as the fourth individual in the furnace and the testimony and influence of the Lord spread in the court of Nebuchadnezzar.
None of this would have happened if they didn’t take a risk and take a step of faith.
We have the same and more testing of God’s promises to rely on in our life today than the three did 2700 years ago.
So, with confidence in the promises of God, let’s cut the rope of our human securities and step boldly and confidently in faith with full reliance on the promises of God.
Apply: What situation am I facing today that God is inviting me to take a calculated step of faith based on his certain promises? What is the promise you will rely on as you step forward?
Prayer: Lord thank you for your time-tested and alway secure promises. Help me with your Spirit to cut the rope of personal security and rely fully on the security your promises give. AMEN.
Cut the Rope of Limitations!
(This week’s devotions are based on Sunday’s message: Win the Day…Cut the Rope – LISTEN HERE)
Elisha Otis had many people for years speak of the lack of safety in a lift. He perhaps, like others, could have thought, “There’s no way a person is going to ride a lift,” and allow the lift to continue to be used for material goods.
Every invention to one degree or another lets go of real or perceived limitations and breaks through them to advance a new idea or a new product or in the case of Otis, a new confidence in people riding in elevators.
But you have to let go of the limitations.
While this truth has practical life application, it also has spiritual applications.
The spiritual battle we wage daily is seeing and operating in life based on our human limitations. When WE don’t see a different way…when WE can’t think of another solution…when WE think a path forward is impossible, we are simply limiting our thoughts and perspectives to our experience.
I hate to say this, because I don’t want to hear it, but that’s the sin of pride.
Pride leads us to think and believe that we have ALL the answers, ALL the solutions, ALL the needed abilities, and ALL the limits of possibilities.
It’s time to cut the rope of pride. Pride limits life to our own perspective, our own capabilities.
An example is in Mark 4. Jesus is with the disciples on a boat in the Sea of Galilee when a squall comes up that threatens to swamp the boats. The experienced sailors saw the limits of their capabilities. They couldn’t calm the winds. They couldn’t still the waves. They couldn’t bail water fast enough. Their conclusion? They were going to drown.
Jesus on the other hand was asleep, seemingly undisturbed by the wind, waves and water coming in the boat.
Why?
Jesus had a different perspective which afforded him different possibilities.
Mark 4:35 That day when evening came, he said to his disciples, “Let us go over to the other side.” 36 Leaving the crowd behind, they took him along, just as he was, in the boat. There were also other boats with him. 37 A furious squall came up, and the waves broke over the boat, so that it was nearly swamped. 38 Jesus was in the stern, sleeping on a cushion. The disciples woke him and said to him, “Teacher, don’t you care if we drown?”
39 He got up, rebuked the wind and said to the waves, “Quiet! Be still!” Then the wind died down and it was completely calm.
40 He said to his disciples, “Why are you so afraid? Do you still have no faith?”
41 They were terrified and asked each other, “Who is this? Even the wind and the waves obey him!”
The limits of man’s capabilities were the beginning of God’s possibilities. The disciples couldn’t calm the wind and the waves, but Jesus did. The disciples couldn’t prevent the boat from sinking, but Jesus did.
Here’s what happens when we cut the rope of our own human limitations…we begin to see and experience the vast reality of God’s possibilities.
Apply: What obstacles are you facing today? What limitations are you feeling or experiencing? What happens when you ask the Lord to deal with the obstacle not with your human limitations, but with God’s possibilities?
Prayer: Lord forgive me for relying solely on my own capabilities. Help me have a heart of faith that always lives in the space of your possibilities. AMEN.
Cut the Rope!
(This week’s devotions are based on Sunday’s message: Win the Day…Cut the Rope – LISTEN HERE)
Until the mid-1800s people were afraid to personally ride in lifts, or elevators. For the most part buildings were five stories or under because that was the threshold people were willing to walk steps. Lifts were secured by a rope or cable and were used to raise and lower goods from one floor to another. The danger of people riding in lifts was if the rope broke, the lift would plummet to the ground causing severe injury or even death.
In 1852 Elisha Otis came up with an ingenious design that would keep the lift from falling to the ground should the rope break. The trouble? People were not buying his version of lift because they were skeptical it would work.
Until 1853.
In 1853, the World’s Fair came to New York City. Elisha Otis built a three-story tall model of his lift and safety break. To the delight, but skepticism, of the crowd, he stood on the lift and had himself lifted three stories off the floor. When the lift was at its highest point, he yelled to an assistant on the platform above the lift, “Cut the rope!”
The crowd gasped, but the safety mechanism sprung into action and with just a short fall, the mechanism caught and Elisha avoided a quick plummet down three stories.
Sales were no longer a problem and the Otis Elevator Company was formed. Estimates are today that every three days the equivalent of the world’s population rides an elevator…without thinking twice about the elevator plummeting to the ground floor.
Why?
Because Otis was willing to cut the rope!
To be sure, to many in Otis’ day, cutting the rope to a lift with a person on it would be a foolish idea. The rope is what most would say gave security to the lift. However, Otis saw a way to secure the lift that others didn’t. As a result, he could cut the rope and rely on something or someone different.
As people saw the demonstration, their confidence a) in using an elevator increased and b) as a result the skyline of New York and other cities changed.
Still today, when I think about it, what makes me feel safe in an elevator is not the cable that moves the elevator, but the safety mechanisms in place should the cable break.
As we go through life, the natural things to rely on are the “ropes” we are used to. The ropes are the things we can touch, experience, and have proven we can depend on. Confidence in human attributes, intellect or creations has a limit to the trust factor.
This week as we desire to win each day for the Lord will be the encouragement to cut the rope and to rely on what we cannot see.
This is the essence of faith as the writer to the Hebrews wrote:
Hebrews 11:1 Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see.
I have never seen a safety break in an elevator, yet I trust it is there. I wish I could honestly say I have the same, consistent trust in the Lord, his power and promises. It is too easy to rely on what we can see and limit God to what we think is possible.
The rope we are used to is hard to cut. Much greater than Otis’ invention is the confidence we can have to walk today by faith.
Apply: What challenges you to walk by faith?
Prayer: Lord, forgive me for the times I have limited life to what I can see and experience. Help me to walk by your Spirit in the confidence and certainty of faith. AMEN.