“Now as he [Paul] reasoned about righteousness, self-control, and the judgment to come, Felix was a afraid and answered, ‘Go away for now, when I have a convenient time I will call for you.’” (Acts 24:25)

In Acts 24, Paul was on trial before a Roman governor named Felix. Felix heard what Paul said, and the Roman was impressed by the message of the gospel. He knew that he had to get his life right with Jesus Christ. Yet he avoided doing anything, and he excused it by telling Paul that he must wait for “a convenient time.”

The excuse of Felix is repeated over and over again in the lives of thousands upon thousands of people.

First, it has application to those who have never trusted in Jesus to be right with God and men. Perhaps they think it is fine thing to be a Christian, and it really is something they must give attention to – but not now. Later. Yes, it must be later.

They tell themselves they will give attention to spiritual things later, when life isn’t so stressed. Later, after they have had their fun. Later, when surely it will be easier to be a Christian.

Of course, all such thoughts are a delusion. There will never be a more convenient time than today. This is why the Bible says: “Behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation” (2 Corinthians 6:2). If God calls a person, moving on their heart to get their life right with Jesus, it is essential that they do it now. They should never assume God will deal with their hearts the same way tomorrow, or a year from now. Every man or woman has their warnings; and every soul that ever perished had a last warning. A wise person would regard today’s warning as perhaps the last one.

Second, the passage has application to the life of those who are already Christians. We have found peace with God through the finished work of Jesus, but God hasn’t finished His work with us yet. Are there places where we resist God’s work under the excuse of waiting for a more convenient time? Perhaps one has an outburst of temper, but instead of dealing with it rightly before God, they say, “That’s just the way I am. Perhaps one day God will change me.” So, they push away the drawing, warning work of the Holy Spirit, waiting for a convenient time to get that area right with God.

God’s work in our life will often be challenging – sometimes even inconvenient for us. Can we submit to God, and allow His work to inconvenience us at times? If He is truly our Lord, we can.

Ask God today to show you things you’ve been putting off, making excuses about, and should address before Him. Then in the wisdom and strength of God’s Spirit, do it.

“Then Jacob was left alone; and a Man wrestled with him until the breaking of day. Now when He saw that He did not prevail against him, He touched the socket of his hip; and the socket of Jacob’s hip was out of joint as He wrestled with him.” (Genesis 32:24-25)

In sports, there is nothing more frustrating than losing to someone who isn’t as good as you are. Sometimes the victory is won by the player or team who isn’t as talented or as trained, but on that day, the ball bounces their way. It’s different when you lose to someone better than you are. You can walk off the field or the court knowing that you’ve played your best game, you worked hard and did well – you were just overmatched. The better player or team won.

In Genesis 32, Jacob had one of the most fantastic athletic contests of all time – a wrestling match with God. We may speak spiritually of wrestling with God in prayer, or wrestling in spiritual warfare, but Jacob’s wrestling was physical as well as spiritual. He was locked in competition with God in human form – the Man of Genesis 32:24 was God Himself who wrestled with Jacob.

On a physical level, Jacob lost. God touched his hip and took him out of the fight. Having wrestled all night, Jacob limped back to his family that morning a loser. But Jacob won spiritually; he clung to God until blessing was promised (Genesis 32:29).

Jacob was a satisfied loser. A better Man beat Him. Sometimes that’s what it takes for us to receive God’s blessing. We need to square off with God, man to Man, have Him beat us, and then honor Him as our Lord. We then may look at God as our Superior, as the competitor who has fairly and decisively bested us. As the winner of every competition, God deserves our utmost respect. And as a loser in the contest, I can still hold my head high. I have been won over by a better Man.

In what ways do I wrestle with God? There are many opportunities for me to resist what God wants to do with me. I may not physically strain against Him as Jacob did, but my resistance is just as real, and my hopes of resisting God successfully are destined to be disappointed.

Losing when I struggle against God is a good thing. It brings me back to something I need to remember: that God is the Creator and I am His creature. There is a comfort in knowing and walking in my place as His creation. I can look up to God and honor Him as the One who genuinely deserves to be my Lord. He has won me over.

Today, you can pray something like this: “Lord, help me today to see ways that I am resisting you. In those areas, please win me over. And when I find you winning me over, let me look for Your blessing in my losing.”

“And after those days we packed and went up to Jerusalem.” (Acts 21:15)

Paul and his companions were on their way to Jerusalem. They had traveled a long way, mostly across the Mediterranean Sea. Now they were on the last part of their journey, going from Caesarea on the coast and then inland toward Jerusalem.

Luke traveled with Paul, indicated by the use of “we” in this sentence. In writing about this part of the trip Luke said something small, yet in my mind significant. He noted, “we packed.” This is noticeable because this was the end of a long journey, yet Luke never before noted that they packed. They sailed from Miletus to Cos, from Cos to Rhodes, from Rhodes to Patara, from Patara to Tyre, Tyre to Ptolemais, and then finally from Ptolemais to Caesarea. They obviously packed and unpacked at each step along the way, but Luke never mentioned it. He only wrote about it here, as they prepared to leave Caesarea and go to Jerusalem.

This makes me think that perhaps this was the first time Luke visited Jerusalem, and like any follower of Jesus, he was excited. He knew that this was the famous City of David, the location of the great temple, and the place where Jesus taught, did miracles, died, rose again, and ascended to heaven. Luke thought that every detail of this last part of their long journey was exciting, and so like an excited tourist he even mentioned, “we packed.”

Beyond the sweet, personal character of those words, there are a few other things to consider about this mention that “we packed and went.”

It shows us that God loves order, and packing is simply the ordering of what we have in preparation for travel. God is a God of order and planning, and our desire to have things in order is a reflection of His image in us. We should never make order and organization an idol, but it is important to be mindful of them because God is full of order and organization.

It shows us that it is wise to prepare for where we are going. Paul, Luke, and the others traveling with them each knew that packing would help them be ready for both their travel to Jerusalem and their time there. Therefore they took the foresight to get ready by carefully packing. The same principle is true for us. We all have an appointment with the future. This is true for the near future, and it is wise for us to prepare for what lies ahead in this life. So, get an education. Learn a trade. Develop a skill. Prepare for the future.

It is even truer for our eternal future. Each of us has an appointment with eternity, one that no one escapes. You should do your packing for that journey. Give your attention to eternal things right now. That means:

– Give attention to God Word, which is eternal.
– Give attention to people, who are eternal.
– Give attention to giving, to send treasure ahead to heaven.

Before you go up to the New Jerusalem, make sure you have packed and prepared for the trip.

“And Abraham said, ‘Lord God, how shall I know that I will inherit it?’“ (Genesis 15:8)

Jesus spoke of a faith that could move mountains, but it often seems that we are more familiar with the doubt that creates those mountains. Trusting God and His plan for our life is a constant challenge, and one faced by everyone who has ever tried to chase away doubt.

Sometimes doubt comes from unbelief – the sort of attitude that doubts that God will keep His word or can keep His word to us. Other times doubt is a by-product of a faith that is growing and maturing – the kind of doubt that recognizes that there is no weakness or wavering in God, but we are weak in our ability to trust. This was the kind of doubt that led a desperate father to say to Jesus, “Lord, I believe; help my unbelief!” (Mark 9:24)

God promised Abraham a son and Abraham waited ten years. He couldn’t forget the promise, and wondered when God would fulfill it. Abraham was successful in business and every other enterprise, but he must have thought “what good is it without the fulfillment of God’s promise?” This was the ache of Abraham’s heart, and it prompted his doubt-filled question to God in Genesis 15:8: “How shall I know that I will inherit it?”

Abraham did what we all should do with our doubts. He brought those doubts to God, and let God speak to them. Again, understand this was not a doubt that denied God’s promise, but a doubt that desired God’s promise. God is always willing to help that kind of doubt.

So what did God do to help Abraham? God, in effect, answered: “Abraham, do you want to know for certain? Then let’s make a contract.” One way to make a contract in Abraham’s day was to have both parties walk together through the carcasses of sacrificed animals, while they repeated the terms of the contract. It seems barbaric to us, but to them it represented two things: first, it showed plainly this was a blood covenant, quite serious in nature. Secondly, it was a dramatic warning: if one of the parties failed to live up to the contract, he could expect that all his animals, and perhaps himself, would end up cut in two.

God wants to help our doubts with a contract. But our contract is not Abraham’s; it is the contract that Jesus called the “New Covenant” (Luke 22:20, Hebrews 9:15). The new covenant was also was established by sacrifice – what Jesus did on the cross towards God the Father and for us.

When we want to believe but still seem to doubt, we don’t have to think God is angry and irritated with us. We can even ask God to prove Himself to us. When you do ask for proof, God will speak to you the same way He did to Abraham. God will point you to a covenant made by sacrifice that proves God’s love and concern for you is real. God will point you to the New Covenant.

Today, ask God to help you with your doubts, and to remember He proved His love for you by the New Covenant and what Jesus did at the cross to establish it.

Without Me they shall bow down among the prisoners, and they shall fall among the slain. (Isaiah 10:4)

The mighty Assyrian Empire threatened the Kingdom of Israel and they weren’t ready to face the threat. They were not ready politically, militarily, or most of all, spiritually. Their only hope was to utterly rely upon the Lord God but they wouldn’t do that. Sadly, Israel wanted to be independent of their God, and their “declaration of independence” would be their ruin.

The ruin didn’t have to come directly from the hand of an avenging God. In declaring their independence from God Israel sowed the seeds of their own destruction. When the Assyrian threat came, all God had to do was let Israel stand on their on two feet. They couldn’t stand at all, and would soon fall down.

That’s why God said, “Without Me they shall bow down among the prisoners, and they shall fall among the slain.” All God had to do to bring extreme judgment on Israel was to withdraw His protection. The Lord declared that “Without Me you have no hope before your enemies.” For a long time Israel lived without God in their worship and obedience. Now they will stand before their enemies without God. It’s a painful truth – when we reject God long enough, He will give us exactly what we want. We don’t realize how much we need God until we stand where the Israelites stood and find ourselves without God.

Tragically, they could not stand at all. Instead, their posture would be just the opposite – they would bow down. When the Assyrians conquered other nations, it wasn’t enough for them to just win a military victory. They had a perverse pleasure in humiliating and subjugating their conquered foes. They did everything they could to bring them low. Here, God said, “You rejected Me, so without Me you shall bow down in humiliation and degradation before your enemies.”

Bowing down isn’t always a bad thing. One of the Hebrew words commonly translated worship in the Old Testament is shachah. It means to bow down, to reverently bow or stoop, or to pay homage. But Isaiah 10:4 uses another word for bow down, the Hebrew word kara. It isn’t a good word; it means to sink, to drop, to bring low, or to subdue. Israel had a choice – bow down in a good way before their loving God, or bow down in a humiliated, low way before their enemies. Which would it be?

This reminds us of Philippians 2:10-11, where the Apostle Paul proclaimed that one day “at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven, and of those on earth, and of those under the earth, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” Every knee will bow before Jesus. God gives us the choice: to now willingly bow down to the Lord in worship, or to have it said of us, without Me they shall bow down in suffering and humiliation. Which will it be for you?