Will Davis Jr.'s Blog, page 28

On the Airplane

 

So teach us to number our days, that we may present to You a heart of wisdom. Psalm 90:12

I’m writing this from the back row of an airplane, somewhere northwest of Dallas. Twenty-four hours ago, this trip wasn’t even on my radar. But as you well know, life can change that fast.

The call came early. The son of some very close friends died suddenly. Grief has consumed the family. And now, I’m flying up to meet with them, grieve with them, help them plan a memorial service and to try to give them hope and perspective.

Did I mention that this trip wasn’t on my calendar even a day ago?

I’ve been walking with Christ and leading a church for over three decades, and yet I’m still shocked at how quickly everything can change. Life  . . . and death . . . don’t play fair. They don’t give warning when changes come calling. They can hit you with a force that takes your breath away and puts you flat on your face, even when you’ve had it happen before.

So I’m thinking about you as I write these words. Actually, I’m thinking about the verse above.

So teach us to number our days . . . .

Bottom line: You never know. Live every day like it will be your last, and someday you’ll be right.

Love your people, and love them well. Tell them you love them.

Be quick to forgive and don’t hold grudges.

Practice instant obedience, as the nudges we get from God have far more eternal consequences than any of us realize.

Live every day fully and wildly for God. Don’t take any day for granted. Every day is a gift. Every day is an opportunity to store up treasures in heaven. And every day is a chance to serve others in Jesus’ name.

Don’t waste a single day.

Father, teach us to number our days, that we may present to You a heart of wisdom. In Jesus’ name . . . .

 

 

 

 

The post On the Airplane appeared first on Will Davis Jr.

Our Justification

 

He who was delivered over because of our transgressions, and was raised because of our justification. Romans 4:25

OK, this will be brief, but I need to start with the bad news: Jesus was killed because you and I sin.

Two thousand years ago God allowed his Son, the Lord Jesus, to be brutally executed as a criminal under Roman law. He died a death that was so horrendous, no Roman citizen could ever experience it.

The really tough part is that his execution was for crimes he didn’t commit. He died as a substitute, a sort of one-life-for-many exchange. The many are you and I.

Jesus died for our sins, for our rebellion, for our guilt and shame. The case against us was so open and shut, that God handed over his Son to the very forces of evil in an effort to deflect the wrath and judgment that was inevitably headed our way.

Jesus was delivered over because of our transgressions.

OK, that’s the bad news. Now here, hallelujah, is the good news:

Jesus was raised to prove that we are justified.

The brutal execution of Jesus didn’t end with his burial. The grave that held him only did so for a matter hours. Jesus was resurrected by the power of God, and with his resurrection came a final victory over sin, death, hell and the very forces of evil that had killed him.

And, Jesus’ resurrection vindicates us. It justifies us. It states once and for all that God was willing to deal with sin, but not at the expense of sinners. He found a way to kill the disease in us without killing us.

What a story! What a victory! Yea God!

Father, we praise you that Jesus was delivered over for our transgressions and was raised for our justification. In Jesus’ name . . .

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The post Our Justification appeared first on Will Davis Jr.

The Sufficiency of God’s Word

 

Then the LORD said to me, “You have seen well, for I am watching over My word to perform it.” Jeremiah 1:12

There’s something we tend to overlook or take too lightly when considering God’s Word: it’s sufficiency. We tend to underestimate the great power of God’s promises.

In this initial chapter of Jeremiah, God wanted to make sure the prophet knew this promise. He wanted Jeremiah to learn early in his ministry the reality of his Word: that God is always watching over it to perform it.

God did not set up his Word and his Truth as some static guide for us. God’s Word isn’t lifeless and void of any efficacy. Rather, the Word of God is backed by the God of his Word. What he says he will do, he does.

What has God promised you? What scriptures in past seasons have leapt off the page at you? What hopes and dreams did you build around the promise of God’s Word?

Don’t abandon those promises. God has neither forgotten you nor his promise to you. His Word is sufficient, his promises sure.

God backs up his Word. He hovers over every jot and tittle to make sure that each lives up to what it promised.

So don’t panic, don’t quit and don’t grow weary in the waiting. God will come through for you. You have his Word on it.

Father, thank you for the faithfulness of your Word. Thank you that it doesn’t fail. In Jesus’ name . . . .

 

The post The Sufficiency of God’s Word appeared first on Will Davis Jr.

Don’t Settle

 

But Jesus answered and said to them, “You are mistaken, not understanding the Scriptures nor the power of God. Matthew 22:29

 

I’m afraid I’m in the habit of not taking my faith seriously enough. I’m guilty of settling, and of not fully realizing the power of God.

The life that God calls us to is not one of human wisdom and human strength. We are quite capable of having that kind of life without any divine input.

The life God calls us to is one of God’s wisdom and God’s strength, and one that we far too often don’t insist on.

Our comfort and relative ease in life has lulled us to sleep. We think how we are living is what God intended. The norm for Christianity has been redefined so many times, the bar lowed so frequently, that when we actually see real examples of God’s power and hear real samplings of God’s truth we’re turned off by them.

But the wonderful Kingdom reality is that God still has more for you. I can write to you with confidence today and promise you that there is more of God—more love, more blessings, more power and more wisdom—than you are currently experiencing.

Don’t settle. Don’t misinterpret the Scriptures and don’t underestimate God’s power. Don’t make human wisdom and human effort the norm. Jesus died to give you much, much better.

Holy God, teach us to crave your wisdom and your power, and to not settle for anything less. In Jesus’ name . . . .

The post Don’t Settle appeared first on Will Davis Jr.

The Enlarged Heart

 

I shall run the way of Your commandments, For You will enlarge my heart. Psalm 119:32

 

We all know that walking and running our good for our hearts. The exercise strengthens our heart muscle.

The same appears to be true spiritually.

In this curious verse in Psalm 119, David acknowledged that running in the way of God commands actually strengthened his heart. In other words, instead of finding God’s commands to be restrictive, David found them to be liberating and life-giving.

Isn’t that interesting? In this day and age when we push back against anything that we deem freedom-limiting, it appears that keeping God’s Word is still the most freeing and empowering way to live.

Obedience is good for you. It grows you, disciplines you, humbles you, strengthens you and gives you perspective. And it’s a critical component in your spiritual health. The more you obey, the more vibrant your spirit will be.

How’s your heart? Is it alive and flowing with the joy and favor of God? Or is it cold and growing smaller by the day.

Get on a spiritual exercise regime. Start obeying God’s Word. Embrace his commands rather than fighting them. Ask God to make you wildly and radically obedient, and he’ll grow your heart in the process.

Oh Father, help us to run in the way of your commands, that our hearts might be enlarged. In Jesus’ name . . . .

 

The post The Enlarged Heart appeared first on Will Davis Jr.

What’s in a Name?

But you will be called, “My delight is in her.” Isaiah 62:4

I love nicknames. I use them all the time. I’ll use nicknames to help create a special bond between the person I’m renaming and myself. It’s sort of a code for the love in our relationship.

God apparently loves nicknames too, or at least multiple names.

Here in this amazing chapter of Isaiah God seems to be going out of his way to use names to describe how he feels about Israel.

He calls his people: My Delight, Married, The Holy People, The Redeemed and Sought Out.

Isn’t that amazing? Isn’t it encouraging?

God looked at his rebellious people through the eyes of his grace and came up with those new names for them. That’s the level and seriousness of God’s love.

And that is how God feels about you.

You are his Delight. You are his Bride. You are one of his Holy People. You are redeemed. You are The One He Sought Out.

You are his Chosen. You are his Beloved.

Father, thank you for what your names for us tell us about how you feel for us. We are so grateful for your love. In Jesus’ name . . . .

 

 

The post appeared first on Will Davis Jr.

Silence

 

But the Lord is in His holy temple. Let all the earth be silent before Him. Habakkuk 2:20

When was the last time you experienced total silence? I mean real, dead-still silence.

Let me define it for you. Silence, as best I understand the biblical word, means the absence of manmade or human sounds. No music, no words, no television, no phones, no lawn mowers, no hum of air conditioners, no cars or planes or trains or sirens in the background. Nothing that reminds you of humans.

Silence is not the absence of natural sounds, the sounds of nature—like birds or ocean waves or wind or rain or thunder. Those sounds remind us of God.

So let me ask again, when was the last time you experience total silence?

It’s hard to find silence these days. You have to really try to get it. Finding silence requires you to turn off, hand off and get away from everything in your world that makes noise.

It’s important, maybe even urgent that you do.

Here’s why: God is there. God is in the silence. He speaks there. He moves there. He reveals there.

Many of us think God doesn’t speak to us. That’s not true. He’s speaking; we just can’t hear him. We need silence.

Because with God, we hear and see him best when nothing else is competing. We hear him best in stillness and silence.

Maybe that’s why he said, Be still and know that I am God (Ps 46:10).

The Lord is in his holy sanctuary. Be silent . . . . .

Father, we long to hear you. Teach us to pursue silence so that we can. In Jesus’ name . . . .

 

 

The post Silence appeared first on Will Davis Jr.

Oaks of Righteousness

 

So they will be called oaks of righteousness, the planting of the LORD. Isaiah61:3

I remember driving down Highway 90 in Gulfport, Mississippi about 8 months after Hurricane Katrina ravaged the area. Evidence of the storm’s severity was still all around.

I remember seeing only the foundations of houses—steps that used to lead up to beautiful beach homes now led to nothing. It looked very much like a warzone.

And then there were the oaks. Huge, centuries-old oak trees still stood firm all along the coastline. They were a bit battered and were missing some leaves, but they appeared to be relatively unscathed from the wrath and fury that Katrina had thrown at them.

It was an amazing sight.

And a humbling one. It made me think about this verse from Isaiah. God promised that his people would be called oaks of righteousness, and the planting of the Lord.

Those words took on a whole new meaning for me as I drove down the Mississippi Gulf coast. The oaks had stood firm in the storm. They hadn’t wavered. What man built had been blown away buy the winds and washed away by the Gulf, but what God planted stood strong.

That’s what God is making you and me into. He’s forming us into mighty oaks of righteousness that are not broken or washed away when the storms of life and the temptations of sin can raging against us. Our righteousness is planted by God. We will not falter.

Father, thank you for making us unshakable, immovable examples of your righteousness. In Jesus’ name . . . .

 

The post Oaks of Righteousness appeared first on Will Davis Jr.

God’s Lofty Love

 

For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his love for those who fear him. Psalm 103:11

Let me start with the answer: God’s love for is so great we can’t ever tap it all or find a way to measure it. That’s the point of this verse:

God’s love for you is limitless.

Now the details: as far as the heavens are above the earth. How high is that?

Well, it depends on what the writer David meant by heavens. If he meant the firmament, the abode of the stars and planets, then we don’t know how big that is because we haven’t been able to completely measure it.

We know that our universe is expanding and so far, we’ve been unable to see to the ends of it. Scientists think that it may be anywhere between 28 and 96 billion light years (a light year is the distance light travels in a year at 186,000 miles per second) in diameter. That’s really, really big. And the Bible says God’s love for us would fill every inch of it.

If David meant Heaven–like where God lives and where the saints and angles live—then God’s love is it’s even larger. God’s home, Heaven, exists in a totally different realm. It’s not physical; it’s spiritual. The point is that it’s so other-worldly we could never discover or measure it.

So as big as the universe is, Heaven is even bigger. And God’s love fills them both.

How much does God love you? Enough to sustain you throughout eternity. Enough to cover all your sins billions and billions of times over.

His love for you will never run out.

Father, thank you for your infinite love. In Jesus’ name . . . .

 

The post God’s Lofty Love appeared first on Will Davis Jr.

God’s Broad Forgiveness

As far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us. Psalm 103:12

How far does forgiveness go? What happens to our sin when God removes it?

These beautiful words from King David tell us. He used a simple fact to help us get it.

Head east. Start out today and travel east.

Let’s start from my hometown of Austin. First, we hit Atlanta, then London, then Moscow, then Beijing, then Tokyo, then Maui, then LA, and then we’re back to Austin.

We’ve traveled all the way around the world, going east the whole time, and there was never a moment when we started going west. Had we traveled north, there would have been a point when we hit the top of the world and started heading south.

But David didn’t say “as far as north is from south,” he said “as far as east is from west.”

His point: east and west never meet. It’s a law, a physical impossibility.

So think about your sin—the former things that God has removed from. They’re gone; you’ll never be able to find them. Search the world high and low and you’ll never find them.

It’s a spiritual law, an impossibility.

When Jesus died and forgave us, he didn’t set our sins in a safe place in case he needed to pull them up, throw them in our faces and remind us of what pagan swine we are. He didn’t put them in a heavenly bank for safe-keeping. He separated them from us and him, and he made the distance the same as that which is between east and west.

That’s how far God’s forgiveness goes. When God forgives he forgives completely.

Father, thank you for your forgiveness. Thank you for separating us fro our sins. In Jesus’ name . . . .

 

 

 

 

 

The post God’s Broad Forgiveness appeared first on Will Davis Jr.