Unto The Hills
I lift up my eyes unto the hills. From whence does my help come? My help comes from the LORD, who made heaven and earth.
Psalm 121:1–2 RSV
Israel, the nation in which the Bible was written, is a very “hilly” country. There are mountains and hills everywhere. In fact, the Bible speaks of going “up to Jerusalem,” which is “a city set on a hill.” Throughout Scripture, there are references to these hills and mountains, and encouragement to the Israelites to “look up” to the hills and to look up to heaven.
The disciples looked and saw the resurrected Christ “ascending” to His Father in heaven. We are told that when Jesus returns, He will come in the clouds and we will see Him come just as He left us, from the sky. Looking upward takes the attention of men and women off of their earthly circumstances. It changes their perspective.
If you have ever flown in an airplane, you know that your perspective of what is on the ground is far different from what it was when you were on the ground. Pictures of the earth that have been taken from the moon and from space show an earth that looks much different from our awareness of the planet while we are on it. This is the kind of perspective God wants to give us of ourselves. As we look unto God instead of at ourselves and our circumstances, our perspectives change.
Do not be bogged down in the circumstances of life. Look upward for the guidance of Christ. Keep your eyes upon the eastern sky. “Lift up your heads; for your redemption draweth nigh” (Luke 21:28)!
Our Father and our God, Master of the hills, I bring You my heart and my life. I look up to You for help in living my life as You would have me live it. I know You are the source of inspiration and enthusiasm for life. I love You, Father. Let Jesus find me watching when He returns. Amen.
Billy Graham, Unto the Hills: A Daily Devotional (Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson, 2010).
Revelation In Scripture
For ever, O LORD, thy word is settled in heaven.
Psalm 119:89
What does revelation mean? It means that something which has been hidden is to be made known. God, who has existed forever, has revealed Himself to us through Scripture.
God has two textbooks (a textbook is a book which gives the reader facts and instructions). One of God’s textbooks is about nature. The other is about revelation.
The laws God has revealed in the textbook of nature have never changed. They tell us of God’s mighty power and majesty.
In the textbook of revelation, the Bible, God has spoken verbally; and this spoken Word has survived every scratch of human pen. It has survived the assault of skeptics, agnostics, and atheists. It has never been proven wrong by a single archaeological discovery. It remains supreme in its revelation of redemption.
The writers of the Bible repeatedly claim that God spoke. Either God did speak, or these men were the biggest liars in history. But for them to have told two thousand lies on one subject would be incredible.
Jesus quoted frequently from the Old Testament. He never once said He doubted Scripture. The apostle Paul often quoted Scripture. In fact Paul said, “All scripture is given by inspiration of God” (2 Timothy 3:16). Were Jesus and Paul fooled by “liars”?
No, God has spoken truly in history, and He still speaks to us today through that same Word, which stands forever because it is the Word of God.
Get to know the Word of God and you will draw closer to Him.
Our Father and our God, reveal to me Your specific will for my life. Help me to draw closer to You by always being close to Your Word, the Bible. I know Your Word holds the key to life eternal. This great knowledge compels me to share with others the Good News about Jesus, which is revealed in Your Word. Help me to share it in love and in His name. Amen.
Billy Graham, Unto the Hills: A Daily Devotional (Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson, 2010).
A Lamp And A Light
Your word is a lamp to guide me and a light for my path.
Psalm 119:105 TEV
We must become grounded in the Bible. As Christians, we have only one authority, one compass: the Word of God.
In a letter to a friend, Abraham Lincoln said, “I am profitably engaged in reading the Bible. Take all of this Book upon reason that you can and the balance upon faith, and you will live and die a better man.”
Coleridge said he believed the Bible to be the Word of God because, as he put it, “It finds me.”
“If you want encouragement,” John Bunyan wrote, “entertain the promises.”
Martin Luther said, “In Scriptures, even the little daisy becomes a meadow.”
The Bible is our one sure guide in an unsure world.
Great leaders have made it their chief Book and their reliable guide. Herbert J. Taylor, formerly international president of Rotary, told me that he began each day by reading the Sermon on the Mount aloud. President Ronald Reagan revered the Bible so much that he proclaimed 1984 the “Year of the Bible.”
We should begin the day with the Book, and as it comes to a close let the Word speak its wisdom to our souls. Let it be the firm foundation upon which our hope is built. Let it be the Staff of Life upon which your spirit is nourished. Let it be the Sword of the Spirit, which cuts away the evil of our lives and fashions us in His image and likeness.
Our Father and our God, thank You for Your living Word. It touches my heart with wisdom. It leads me through this dark world and keeps my feet on the Way to You. I love Your Word, Lord. And I love Jesus, who demonstrated Your Word on earth. Amen.
Billy Graham, Unto the Hills: A Daily Devotional (Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson, 2010).
Searching
My spirit made diligent search.
Psalm 77:6
When a spacecraft returns from its orbital flight, there is a blackout period of about four minutes when all communications are broken. This is due to the intense heat generated by the spacecraft’s reentry into the earth’s atmosphere.
The Bible teaches that man is in a period of spiritual blackout. Spiritually, he is blind. “We grope for the wall like the blind, and we grope as if we had no eyes: we stumble at noon day as in the night; we are in desolate places as dead men” (Isaiah 59:10). “The god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not” (2 Corinthians 4:4).
Spiritually, man is also deaf. “They have ears to hear, and hear not” (Ezekiel 12:2). Jesus went so far as to say, “If they hear not Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded, though one rose from the dead” (Luke 16:31).
Spiritually, man is even dead. “Who were dead in trespasses and sins” (Ephesians 2:1).
All of this means that the communication between God and man is broken. There is a wonderful world of joy, light, harmony, peace, and satisfaction to which millions of persons are blind and deaf, and even dead. They search for serenity, they long for happiness, but they never seem to find it.
Many give up the search and surrender to pessimism. Often their despondency leads to a frantic round of cocktail parties where vast amounts of alcohol are imbibed. Sometimes it leads them to narcotics or illicit sex. It is all part of man’s desperate search to find an escape from the cold realities of a sin-blighted existence. All the while God is there, speaking and beckoning. God is sending forth His message of love, but we must be on the right wavelength. We must be willing to receive His message and then to obey it.
Our Father and our God, renew in my mind’s eye a perfect vision of You. Revive my spiritual hearing so that Yours is the only voice I hear calling me. And release my heart once again from the death grip of spiritual apathy. Show me Your glorious world of joy, light, harmony, and peace that’s available through Christ, my Lord. Amen.
Billy Graham, Unto the Hills: A Daily Devotional (Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson, 2010).
Satisfying The Longing Soul
Oh that men would praise the LORD for his goodness, and for his wonderful works to the children of men! For he satisfieth the longing soul, and filleth the hungry soul with goodness.
Psalm 107:8–9
When Satan tried to tempt Jesus into the same trap made of “things” that he lured men to in this day, Christ said, “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God” (Matthew 4:4). Bread is important—but it is not all-important. Pleasure and recreation have their place—but they must not have first place. Money is necessary, but gold is not a satisfying substitute for God.
Now, as then, God’s Word resounds in our ears: “Hearken diligently unto me, and eat that which is good, and let your soul delight itself in fatness” (Isaiah 55:2). This is the secret of soul satisfaction: Let your soul delight itself in fatness. Remove the obstructions, tear down the barriers, and let your soul find the fulfillment of its deepest longings in fellowship with God.
I could tell you of many people who have explored every earthly resource for happiness and failed, but eventually came in repentance and faith to Christ, and in Him found satisfaction. The principal reason communism loses ground in the world (when it does) is that it promises material prosperity without spiritual satisfaction. Things, minus God, equal misery. That equation is just as true as two plus two equal four. As Eddie Rickenbacker once said, “Let the moment come when nothing is left but life, and you will find that you do not hesitate over the fate of material possessions.”
Our Father and our God, fill me with Your spirit. Help me to know that You are all I need. Deliver me from the temptations of this world and take away my desire for material things that only shackle me to this sinful world. Let me find my satisfaction in You. Through Jesus, my Savior. Amen.
Billy Graham, Unto the Hills: A Daily Devotional (Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson, 2010).
Angels All Around Me
Bless the LORD, ye his angels, that excel in strength, that do his commandments hearkening unto the voice of his word.
Psalm 103:20
There is much in the news these days about demons and devil worship. Movies like The Exorcist attracted wide interest years ago and packed movie theaters. Today we read of cults that engage in animal and, in some instances, human sacrifice.
Until recently there was far less attention paid to angels, perhaps because so much of the media seems preoccupied with the evil forces in the spirit world and not the good. But if you are a believer in Christ, expect powerful angels to accompany you in your life experiences. You will not always be able to sense their presence. You will not be aware that you did not turn down a certain road, preferring another, because an angel so directed you away from trouble.
The Bible teaches that angels speak and that they appear and reappear. You may have never seen one, but there is much that you have not seen that still exists. You may never have been to the North Pole, either, but it is there.
Often we fail to sense the spiritual forces around us because we operate for the most part on our physical senses, the senses of sight, touch, and taste. Get tuned in to the spiritual realm through God’s Word and through regular prayer and sense the angels and the work of God’s Holy Spirit in your life. It is like tuning in on a radio. The signals are already in the air, but you have to turn the dial to bring them in.
Our Father and our God, give me spiritual insight to sense the presence of angels around me. Open my heart that I may be fully aware. I believe they are all around me, Father. Help me overcome my unbelief by following the example of Jesus, who trusted You in every circumstance of life. In Him. Amen.
Billy Graham, Unto the Hills: A Daily Devotional (Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson, 2010).
We Are Going To A Place
I go to prepare a place for you.
John 14:2
The Lord Jesus could have used any word, any symbol to tell us where we would spend eternity. But He always chose words very carefully, and so in this instance He used the word place.
I live in a place, high on a mountain in a log cabin in North Carolina. This place has an address. If you send a letter to me, the postman knows where to deliver it.
In saying that He was going to prepare a place for us, Jesus was telling us that when we die, we are going to a precise location. We do not evaporate or disappear. In fact, He said, “In my Father’s house are many mansions.” We are going to have a place in heaven if we have trusted Christ as our Savior—and not only a place, but a mansion!
When we as Christians die, we go straight into the presence of Christ, straight to that place, straight to that mansion in heaven to spend eternity with God. We are simply changing our address, much as we would if we moved to another place here on earth. If the post office was capable of delivering the mail in heaven, we could fill out a change of address form, because the place we are going has an address just as the place in which we are now living has an address. It is a real place.
Our Father and our God, I am excited to come and be with You in that special place that Jesus has prepared for me. I look forward to that day with anticipation and joy. When the time comes, I will gladly change my address to Yours. In the meantime, teach me to wait with patience and anticipation for my returning Lord Jesus. Amen.
Billy Graham, Unto the Hills: A Daily Devotional (Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson, 2010).
Forever
As for man, his days are as grass; even as a flower of the field, so he flourisheth.
Psalm 103:15
The Bible reminds us that our days are like grass; we live and flourish for only a brief time. Because of this, we are exhorted to redeem the time because the days are evil.
Our lives are also immortal. God made man different from the other creatures. He made him in His own image, a living soul. When this body dies and our earthly existence is terminated, the soul lives on forever. One thousand years from this day you will be more alive than you are at this moment. This Bible teaches that life does not end at the cemetery. There is a future life with God for those who put their trust in His Son, Jesus Christ. There is also a future hell of separation from God toward which all are going who have refused, rejected, or neglected to receive His Son, Jesus Christ.
Victor Hugo once said, “I feel in myself the future of life.” Cyrus the Great is reported to have declared, “I cannot imagine that the soul lives only while it remains in this mortal body.”
Our Father and our God, I know that I am made in Your immortal image. Some days I just don’t feel immortal, Father; I feel tired, lonely, and hopeless. But today I feel Your comfort, Your energetic Spirit, and Your hope. I feel excited about life in Your Son, who brought happiness and hope to my life. In His name I thank You and praise You. Amen.
Billy Graham, Unto the Hills: A Daily Devotional (Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson, 2010).
The Owl And The Pelican
I am like a pelican of the wilderness: I am like an owl of the desert.
Psalm 102:6
My wife had a weakness for books—especially old, choice religious books which are now out of print. At one time Foyles’ in London had a large secondhand religious book department. One day during the 1954 London Crusade, she was browsing through the books in Foyles’ when a very agitated clerk popped our from behind the stacks and asked if she was Mrs. Graham. When she told him that she was, he began to tell her a story of confusion, despair, and frustration. His marriage was on the rocks, his home was breaking up, and business problems were mounting. He explained that he had explored every avenue for help and as a last resort planned to attend the services at Harringay arena that night. Ruth assured him that she would pray for him, and she did. That was in 1954.
In 1955 we returned to London. Again my wife went into Foyles’ secondhand book department. This time the same clerk appeared from behind the stacks, his face wreathed in smiles. After expressing how happy he was to see her again, he explained that he had gone to Harringay that night in 1954 as he had said he would, that he had found the Savior, and that the problems in his life had sorted themselves out.
Then he asked Ruth if she would be interested in knowing what verse it was that “spoke to him.” She was. Again he disappeared behind all the books and reappeared with a worn Bible in his hand. He turned to Psalm 102, which I had read the night that he had attended the Crusade. He pointed out verse 6, “I am like a pelican of the wilderness: I am like an owl of the desert.” This had so perfectly described to him his condition that he realized for the first time how completely God understood and cared. As a result he was soundly converted to the Lord Jesus Christ. And subsequently so was his entire family.
My wife was in London during 1972 at the time of a Harringay reunion. As the ceremonies closed, a gentleman came up to speak to her, but he didn’t have to introduce himself. She recognized the clerk from Foyles’. He was radiantly happy, introduced his Christian family, and explained how they were all now in the Lord’s work—all because God spoke to him when he was “an owl of the desert”!
How graciously God speaks to us in our need . . . often through some obscure passage.
Our Father and our God, I praise You for leading me to the exact passages in Your Book that I need every day. I search for You among the pages, and I am never disappointed, for You are always there. I love Your Word, Lord. Help me to mold my life to fit within its precepts and promises through Your Son. Amen.
Billy Graham, Unto the Hills: A Daily Devotional (Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson, 2010).
In The Beginning
God hath from the beginning chosen you.
2 Thessalonians 2:13
God’s love did not begin at Calvary. Before the morning stars of the pre-Eden world sang together, before the world was baptized with the first light, before the first blades of tender grass peeped out, God was love.
Turn back to the unwritten pages of countless millennia before God spoke this present earth into existence, when the earth was “without form and void” and the deep, silent darkness of space formed a vast gulf between the brilliance of God’s glory and His cherubim and seraphim, who covered their faces with their wings in reverence toward Him who is high and holy.
Yet lofty as the heavens may be, and pure as God’s holiness glistens, there comes to our ears the word that the majesty of His love was moved for us, and the Lamb was slain from the foundation of the world.
God thought of you even then, even before He made the world, even before He made you. It is that God who loves you and longs to have the deepest and closest relationship possible with you.
That is what it was like in the beginning. That is what it is still like today, for God never changes, whether it be in His personality or in His love for you.
Our Father and our God, I cannot fathom Your eternal nature. My little mind cannot grasp Your greatness, Your magnificence, Your everlasting love and care. I bow in praise and adoration, Father, and I thank You for loving me even before I was. Through Jesus, Your eternal Son. Amen.
Billy Graham, Unto the Hills: A Daily Devotional (Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson, 2010).
The Cloud Of Discouragement
May the God of steadfastness and encouragement grant you to love in such harmony with one another, in accord with Christ Jesus.
Romans 15:5 RSV
The root of discouragement is unbelief. Consider what discourages you. You are not making enough money (you are not convinced that God can and will supply all of your needs); you are frustrated in your job (you have refused to believe that you can be content in whatever state you are in); you are worried about health problems (Is not God the great physician? Did He not make your body and know how every cell functions? Can He not heal you when and if He wishes?).
Discouragement is a large cloud that, like all clouds, obscures the warmth and joy of the sun. In the case of spiritual discouragement, the Son of God, the Lord Jesus, is eclipsed in our lives. Discouragement blinds our eyes to the mercy of God and makes us perceive only the unfavorable circumstances.
There is only one way to dispel discouragement, and it is not in our own strength or ingenuity. The Bible says, “Wait on the LORD: be of good courage, and he shall strengthen thine heart: wait, I say, on the LORD” (Psalm 27:14).
I have never met a person who spent time daily in prayer and in the study of God’s Word and who was strong in the faith who was ever discouraged for very long. You cannot be discouraged if you are close to the One who gives us hope.
“Be of good cheer,” Jesus tells us. “I have overcome the world.”
Our Father and our God, You are my strength and my courage. Help me, Lord, to be strong in the faith and close to You. I praise Your mighty name, and I glory in the cross of Jesus Christ, through whom I have salvation and hope. Amen.
Billy Graham, Unto the Hills: A Daily Devotional (Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson, 2010).
The Family
All thy children shall be taught of the LORD; and great shall be the peace of thy children.
Isaiah 54:13
The family is the basic unit of society. But from the very beginning, since man sinned against God, the family has been in trouble.
On certain products you will find the label, “For best results follow the instructions of the manufacturer.” For best results in marriage and in rearing children and building a stable home, follow the instructions of the One who performed the first wedding in the Garden of Eden. Those instructions are in the Bible. The reason the family is in critical condition today is that we have neglected the rules, the regulations, the formula for a successful home.
You can have the right kind of home. Your home can be united if it is now divided. Perhaps there is so much tension and unhappiness that you wonder whether you can stand it much longer. Perhaps you are seriously contemplating divorce. Don’t do it! God can heal any marriage if we allow Him to.
A good friend who has counseled troubled marriages for many years says that whenever he hears someone say, “I don’t love her,” or “I don’t love him anymore,” the first question he asks is this: “But are you willing to love?”
If we are not willing to love our spouses, then God will not be able to restore the love we once had for our mates. Remember, feelings come out of commitment and sacrifice. We love God because He first loved us. We came to feel and understand God’s love after He offered it in the person of His Son, Jesus Christ.
Receive God’s love and ask Him to restore your love for your mate. He will.
Our Father and our God, I know that You loved me with all Your heart when You sent Jesus to save me. Help me to love my family as You have loved me. I want to love them with a pure and gentle love. I want to love them unconditionally. I want to lead them faithfully to You. Through Christ, my strength and hope. Amen.
Billy Graham, Unto the Hills: A Daily Devotional (Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson, 2010).
Angel At Work?
For He will give His angels [especial] charge over you, to accompany and defend and preserve you in all your ways (of obedient service).
Psalm 91:11 AB
The British express train raced through the night, its powerful headlight piercing the darkness. Queen Victoria was a passenger on the train.
Suddenly the engineer saw a startling sight. Revealed in the beam of the engine’s light was a strange figure in a black cloak standing in the middle of the tracks and waving its arms. The engineer grabbed for the brake and brought the train to a grinding halt.
He and his fellow trainmen clambered down to see what had stopped them. But they could find no trace of the strange figure. On a hunch the engineer walked a few yards further up the tracks. Suddenly he stopped and stared into the fog in horror. A bridge had been washed out in the middle and ahead of them it had toppled into a swollen stream. If the engineer had not heeded the ghostly figure, his train would have plummeted down into the stream.
While the bridge and the tracks were being repaired, the crew made a more intensive search for the strange flagman. But not until they got to London did they solve the mystery.
At the base of the engine’s head lamp the engineer discovered a huge dead moth. He looked at it a moment, then on impulse wet its wings and pasted it to the glass of the lamp.
Climbing back into his cab, he switched on the light and saw the “flagman” in the beam, seconds before the train was due to reach the washed-out bridge. In the fog, it appeared to be a phantom figure, waving its arms.
When Queen Victoria was told of the strange happening she said, “I’m sure it was no accident. It was God’s way of protecting us.”
No, the figure the engineer saw in the headlight’s beam was not an angel . . . and yet God, quite possibly through the ministry of His unseen angels, had placed the moth on the headlight lens exactly when and where it was needed. Truly “He will command his angels concerning you to guard you in all your ways” (Psalm 91:11 NIV).
Our Father and our God, You have so often protected me from the potential disasters of my life. You have led me through the fog of unholy thinking back to a right spirit with You. You have rescued me from the pits of my own making. Thank You, God, for sending Your angels to watch over me every day. In Jesus’ name. Amen.
Billy Graham, Unto the Hills: A Daily Devotional (Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson, 2010).
Does God Care?
I will say of the LORD, he is my refuge and my fortress: my God; in him will I trust.
Psalm 91:2
A refuge is a place which is safely out of harm’s way. A fortress is a fortified building that is virtually impenetrable by conventional means.
Martin Luther wrote that wonderful hymn which says, “A mighty fortress is our God; a bulwark, never failing. Our helper He amidst the flood; of mortal ills prevailing.” What a statement about the magnificent power and protection of God!
Does God care for you and me? What greater proof do we need than that God sent His Son, Jesus Christ, to die in our place?
Recently two men were hanged for possession of drugs in a country where capital punishment has been invoked for such crimes. Imagine what these men might have felt had another man rushed in just before the nooses were placed around their necks and offered to take their place, freeing them to go home to their families. What an incredible joy and sense of relief would have come over those condemned men.
God has done precisely that for us. He cared so much for us that even while we were yet sinners and still rebellious, He sent His only Son to die in our place, suffering the penalty that rightly was ours. And God keeps on giving. He meets our daily physical needs. He delivers us from evil when we stay close to Him. And there is never a time when we are separated from His care and concern. How could there be? His Son died for us. Can you think of a better reason why God would care for us?
Our Father and our God, thank You for Your amazing care and concern for me. In spite of my many sins, O Lord, You have reached down to touch me with love and grace. Take away my rebellious spirit; restore in me Your gentleness and hope. Help me keep my life centered on the cross of Christ. Amen.
Billy Graham, Unto the Hills: A Daily Devotional (Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson, 2010).
The Answer To Worry
Thou rulest the raging of the sea: when the waves thereof arise, thou stillest them.
Psalm 89:9
Worry,” Vince Havner said, “is like sitting in a rocking chair. It will give you something to do, but it won’t get you anywhere.” Worry and anxiety have hounded the human race since the beginning of time, and modern man with all his innovations has not found the cure for the plague of worry.
Physicians tell us that 70 percent of all illnesses are imaginary, the cause being mental distress or worry. In reading hundreds of letters from people with spiritual problems, I am convinced that high on the list is the plague of worry. It has been listed by heart specialists as the number one cause of heart trouble.
Psychiatrists tell us that worry breeds nervous breakdowns and mental disorders. Worry is more adept than Father Time in etching deep lines into the face. It is disastrous to health, robs life of its zest, crowds out constructive, creative thinking, and cripples the soul.
When Sir Walter Raleigh was burdened with a huge debt, his doctor said to him one day: “Sir Walter, if you don’t stop worrying, you will die.” He looked up sadly, and said: “I can’t help worrying as long as that debt is over my head. It may kill me, but you might as well tell my cook to order the water in the kettle not to boil as to command my brain not to worry.”
What is the answer? The hymn writer Edward Henry Bickersteth hinted at it when he wrote: “Peace, perfect peace, in this dark world of sin? The blood of Jesus whispers peace within.”
The sea was beating against the rocks in huge, dashing waves. The lightning was flashing, the thunder was roaring, the wind was blowing; but the little bird was asleep in the crevice of the rock, its head serenely under its wing, sound asleep. That is peace—to be able to sleep in the storm! In Christ, we are relaxed and at peace in the midst of confusions, bewilderments, and perplexities of this life. The storm rages, but our hearts are at rest. We have found peace because we have learned to trust our living God.
Our Father and our God, I rest in You, and I take shelter from the stress and frustrations of my life. Bless me, Father, with Your constant peace of mind and calmness of soul. Without You I will surely be overwhelmed by life. But with You I am safe, I am at peace, and I can rest. Thank You, through Your Son. Amen.
Billy Graham, Unto the Hills: A Daily Devotional (Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson, 2010).
True Righteousness
For the Lord knoweth the way of the righteous; but the way of the ungodly shall perish.
Psalm 1:6
What does it mean to be righteous?
Some people confuse it with being self-righteous—that is, seeing ourselves as better than other people and being proud of it. The proud Pharisee in Jesus’ story “stood up and prayed about himself: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other men—robbers, evildoers, adulterers—or even like this tax collector’” (Luke 18:11 NIV). But Jesus condemned his self-righteous attitude, commending instead the tax collector for his humble prayer for mercy.
But true righteousness—the kind of righteousness the Bible urges us to have—comes only from God. By nature we are unrighteous and sinful, but when we come to Christ, our sins, like filthy garments, are cast aside, and we become clothed with the perfect righteousness of Christ. Now God counts us as righteous in His sight, because He has imparted to us “the righteousness that comes from God and is by faith” (Philippians 3:9 NIV).
Once we have committed our lives to Christ, however, God calls us to live righteous lives—lives of purity and goodness and love. In ourselves this is impossible, but as we submit to the control of His Holy Spirit, we find strength to live the way we should, “bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God, being strengthened with all power according to his glorious might so that you may have great endurance and patience, and joyfully giving thanks to the Father” (Colossians 1:10–11 NIV). This is true righteousness! Is it your goal?
Our Father and Our God, I thank You that You have taken away all my sins and clothed me instead with the perfect righteousness of Christ. Now help me to turn away from the impurity and sin of this world every day, and to live a life of purity and righteousness that brings glory to You. In Christ’s name I pray, Amen.
Billy Graham, Unto the Hills: A Daily Devotional (Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson, 2010).
God Speaks
I will hear what the LORD will say; for He will speak peace to His people, to His godly ones.
Psalm 85:8 NASB
In every good novel or play there must be a conflict. But even Shakespeare could not have created a more powerful plot than the divine dilemma. We know that man is sinful and separated from God. Because God is holy, He couldn’t automatically forgive or ignore man’s rebellion. Because God is love, He couldn’t completely cast man aside. Conflict. How could God be just and the justifier? This is the question Job posed: “But how can a man be in the right before God?” (Job 9:2 NASB).
Perhaps you have been puzzled that the prophets said God spoke to them. Does He speak to us? Does He tell us where He is—how we can find Him—how we can be right with Him? God has solved the problem; He does tell us about Himself and His loving concern. The key is a line of communication, which is “revelation.”
Revelation means “to make known,” “to unveil.” Revelation requires a “revealer,” who in this case is God. It also requires “hearers”—the chosen prophets and apostles who recorded in the Bible what He told them. Revelation is communication in which God is at one end and man is at the other.
In the revelation that God established between Himself and us we can find a new dimension of living, but we must “tune in.” Levels of living we have never attained await us. Peace, satisfaction, and joy we have never experienced are available to us. God is trying to break through. The heavens are calling and God is speaking.
Have you heard God’s voice speaking to you through the pages of His Word, the Bible? Make it a part of your life every day.
Our Father and our God, I am listening for Your voice. I want to do Your will. I want to be in tune with Your mind and spirit. Please break through my stubbornness and pride, Father, so that I may hear Your call for my life. Through Jesus, my Lord. Amen.
Billy Graham, Unto the Hills: A Daily Devotional (Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson, 2010).
Revival
O LORD . . . revive thy work in the midst of the years.
Habakkuk 3:2
Have you ever seen someone unconscious? Such a person will usually have vital signs but is not aware of anything that is occurring. There is also a lack of any perception of reality.
There is a difference between revival and resuscitation. Resuscitation is used on a person who is dead and whom the doctors are trying to bring back to life. Revival is for a person who is alive but unconscious. Spiritually, we can be unconscious and completely out of touch with the Spirit of God. We may be unaware of the God who made us and what He wants to do in and through us.
When one comes to Christ in faith and is born again, he or she is brought back from the dead into life. But when revival occurs, a person who is already a Christian is brought back from the brink of apathy, of taking God for granted, of ignoring God and trying to live under one’s own power and strength. This can be deadly for others, because the Christian in need of revival is not producing any fruit for God. “I’ve got mine and that’s all that matters” is not an attitude that is pleasing to God.
If we are to see a revival in our nation, it must begin in the hearts of individual believers. As the hymn says, “Lord, send a revival and let it begin with me.” What are you doing in your daily walk with God that will bring revival to your life—and the lives of others?
Our Father and our God, I pray for Your forgiveness and mercy. I know that I need to be revived from apathy in certain areas of my spiritual life. Please renew my spirit, Lord. Build a fire within me again that will warm the hearts of others around me. I pray this through Jesus, my constant Companion. Amen.
Billy Graham, Unto the Hills: A Daily Devotional (Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson, 2010).
Longing For God
My soul longs, yea, faints for the courts of the LORD; my heart and flesh sing for joy to the living God.
Psalm 84:2 RSV
What does it mean to “long” for someone? It means that a person is unsatisfied or unfulfilled because there is someone he or she very much wants to be near, to hear that certain voice, to experience that special presence.
Have you ever been under water for a period of time that is longer than you had expected? You know, as the time ticks away, how desperate you become to reach the surface and breathe the air. The greater the time you are under water, the more you long for a breath of air until that desire overwhelms you, and you rush to get to the surface as rapidly as possible. You have no other thoughts but quenching your need for air.
That is what it means to “long for God.” In another context, it is what it means to “hunger and thirst” after righteousness with the same desires that lead us to quench our physical need for food and water.
How many of us are content to give God only a brief moment of our time, a hasty prayer before a meal, a few coins in the offering plate on Sunday, and forget about Him the rest of the time?
God wants us to long for Him because it is in that longing that we are fulfilled and overwhelmed by God and the reality of His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, in our lives.
We are never more fulfilled than when our longing for God is met by His presence in our lives.
Our Father and our God, You are the One, the only One I need. I long for You to fill my heart and life with meaning. I yearn to be satisfied spiritually. I want to be in Your presence now and forever. Don’t let me drift away from You, O Lord. Keep me close to You through Christ. Amen.
Billy Graham, Unto the Hills: A Daily Devotional (Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson, 2010).
More Than Conquerors
The joy of the LORD is your strength.
Nehemiah 8:10 RSV
God’s idea of strength and man’s idea of strength are opposite one another. The Lord told Paul, “My strength is made perfect in weakness” (2 Corinthians 12:9). Having learned this lesson, Paul could then say, “When I am weak, then I am strong” (2 Corinthians 12:10).
It is true that God’s strength is made perfect in weakness. Otherwise, it would not be God’s strength, nor would He get the glory. That is why throughout the Old Testament God ordered the leaders of Israel to reduce the size of their armies, or He announced in advance the time and place of conflict and which side was going to win. God wanted the faith of man to be placed in Him and not in human armaments or physical strength. In our own lives, God wants us to be broken in spirit so that He can make us strong at the broken places.
Man likes to place his security in missiles and armies, but the world now has more nuclear weapons and more men under arms than ever before in history. Have all of these weapons, all of these armies brought more security to humanity? On the contrary, they have brought less security because man will still not trust in God.
Isaiah said, “But they that wait upon the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint” (40:31). This is the kind of strength God is prepared to give us if we will only ask Him for it.
Do you have this strength? You can have it. Just ask!
Our Father and our God, I bow before You in weakness and frailty. Without You I am nothing; I am useless; I am hopeless. I need Your strength, O God, to live in this world of evil powers and frightening spirits. Help me to depend on You, and You alone, through Jesus, my Savior. Amen.
Billy Graham, Unto the Hills: A Daily Devotional (Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson, 2010).