Participating in a Miracle / Ann Graham Lotz

 Participating in a Miracle

“Not by might nor by power, but by My Spirit,” says the Lord of hosts.

Zechariah 4:6, nkjv

God never asks us to give Him what we don’t have. But He does demand that we give Him all we do have if we want to be a part of what He wishes to do in the lives of those around us!

Remember the servants at the wedding in Cana? They had the thrill of knowing firsthand that water went into the pitcher, but wine came out! They had the unparalleled experience of participating in a miracle! Could you be in danger of missing the thrilling blessing of participating with God in a miracle because, for whatever reason, you won’t give Him all that you have? The disciples did not know it at the time, but they were on the verge of participating in a miracle because they gave Jesus everything they had found to feed the crowd: five barley loaves and two small fish! As a result, the entire multitude was fed—and blessed!

The Sound of His Voice / Ann Graham Lotz

The Sound of His Voice

My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me.

John 10:27,nkjv

The Eastern shepherd of Jesus’ day raised his sheep primarily in the Judean uplands. The countryside was rocky, hilly, and creased with deep crevices and ravines. Patches of grass were sparse. So the shepherd had to establish a personal relationship with each sheep, nurturing its love and trust in order to lead it to where the path was the smoothest, the grass was the greenest, the water was the cleanest, and the nights were the safest. The shepherd always led the sheep. He knew their names, and when he called them, they recognized his voice and, followed him. When he stopped, the sheep huddled closely around him, pressing against his legs. Their personal relationship with him was based on his voice, which they knew and trusted.

The Bible describes our relationship with Jesus as being similar to the relationship between the Eastern shepherd and his sheep—a relationship based on the sound of His voice. And make no mistake about it, His voice is God’s Word, the Holy Bible.

My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me.

John 10:27,nkjv

The Eastern shepherd of Jesus’ day raised his sheep primarily in the Judean uplands. The countryside was rocky, hilly, and creased with deep crevices and ravines. Patches of grass were sparse. So the shepherd had to establish a personal relationship with each sheep, nurturing its love and trust in order to lead it to where the path was the smoothest, the grass was the greenest, the water was the cleanest, and the nights were the safest. The shepherd always led the sheep. He knew their names, and when he called them, they recognized his voice and, followed him. When he stopped, the sheep huddled closely around him, pressing against his legs. Their personal relationship with him was based on his voice, which they knew and trusted.

The Bible describes our relationship with Jesus as being similar to the relationship between the Eastern shepherd and his sheep—a relationship based on the sound of His voice. And make no mistake about it, His voice is God’s Word, the Holy Bible.

The Walk of Faith / Ann Graham Lotz

 The Walk of Faith

Enoch walked with God; then he was no more, because God took him away.

Genesis 5:24, niv

I wonder what Enoch and God talked about as they walked together each day. Perhaps Enoch commented on the beauty of the sunrise that morning and how much he had enjoyed listening to the sound of the birds calling to each other as they awakened before dawn. Or perhaps he told God how grateful he was for the evidence of His faithfulness when he saw the sun come up every morning.

It was never drudgery for Enoch to meet with God. It wasn’t something he felt he had to do; it was something he wanted to do. In the process, he must have grown in an ever more intimate, loving, personal knowledge of Who God is. He gave God his undivided attention, spent more and more time with Him, gained a greater and greater depth of understanding, allowed fewer and fewer interruptions until there were no interruptions at all and his walk of faith became sight!

Enoch’s friends looked for him, but he couldn’t be found, because he had walked right into the very presence of God!

The Greatest Life / Ann Graham Lotz

 The Greatest Life

Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord, and whose hope is the Lord.

Jeremiah 17:7, nkjv

Who is Jesus? He lived two thousand years ago, in an obscure town, in an obscure country, during a relatively dark period in human history that was dominated by the Roman Empire. Yet He stands unequaled and unparalleled in the phenomenal greatness of His life as well as in the stunning impact He has had on history.

As we look back over the past two thousand years, a handful of individuals seem to rise up from our history pages—individuals whose lives or words or accomplishments impacted the entire human race, for good or for bad. Names like Julius Caesar, Martin Luther, Muhammad, Christopher Columbus, Adolf Hitler, Alexander Graham Bell, Jonas Salk, and Mahatma Gandhi come readily to mind. Yet I would heartily agree with Reynolds Price, who in the introduction to his Time magazine cover story on Jesus, wrote, “It would require much exotic calculation . . . to deny that the single most powerful figure—not merely in these two millenniums but in all human history—has been Jesus of Nazareth.” Amen!

Come to Him / Ann Graham Lotz

 Come to Him

There is no one righteous, not even one.

Romans 3:10, niv

“Come, let us build ourselves a city, with a tower that reaches to the heavens, so that we may make a name for ourselves” (Gen. 11:4, niv).

In their pride, the builders of Babel assumed they could work their way into God’s Presence and He would accept them on the basis of what they had done. They were wrong then, and they are still wrong today.

God has said that “All our righteous acts are like filthy rags,” (Isa. 64:6, niv) and “There is no one righteous, not even one,” (Rom. 3:10, niv) and “Without holiness no one will see the Lord” (Heb. 12:14, niv). So how does one get into heaven? Jesus gave clear instructions, “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven,” (Matt. 7:21, niv) and “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me” (John 14:6, niv). All religions are man’s organized, rebellious, prideful attempt to get around God’s stated will and way and work and Word. Instead of arguing with Him, just come to Him through Jesus.

Trust God’s Goodness / Ann Graham Lotz

 Trust God’s Goodness

He will wipe every tear from their eyes.

Revelation 21:4, niv

One day God will call us forth from the dead, and we will rise again! Praise God! Praise God! Praise God! All of our suffering will be over, and God Himself “‘will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.’ He who was seated on the throne said . . . , ‘Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true’” (Rev. 21:4–5, niv).

When you don’t understand why, just trust Him!

Trust His heart!                                                                                            
Trust His purpose!
Trust His goodness!
Trust His plan to be bigger than yours!

Trust Him because . . .God is enough.

What a Savior! / Ann Graham Lotz

 What a Savior!

He came to His own, and His own did not receive Him. But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God.

John 1:11–12, nkjv

God left His throne at the center of the universe. He set aside His glory, and He humbled Himself as He took on human flesh.

He came to His own—those whom He had created for Himself—but they didn’t receive Him.

They contradicted His Word.
They challenged His authority.
They denied His claims.
They questioned His motives.
They mocked His power.
They rejected His Person.

And God in Christ submitted Himself to their slapping, spitting, mocking, taunting, flogging, and stripping then allowed them to nail Him to a cross where He gave His own life as a sacrifice for their sin. And mine. And yours. His own death satisfied His own judgment for sin, and we are saved. Hallelujah! What a Savior!

God’s Story, (Nashville: W Publishing, 1997). 

A Greater Miracle / Ann Graham Lotz

 A Greater Miracle

“Lazarus is dead, and for your sake I am glad I was not there, so that you may believe. But let us go to him.”

John 11:14-15, niv

Jesus was glad Lazarus had died without Him?! What does that mean? We know it doesn’t mean He enjoyed knowing that Lazarus had died or that He enjoyed thinking about the family’s grief and despair.

Jesus was teaching His disciples—and you and me—a life lesson. And what a life lesson it is! The lesson is this: There is a greater miracle than physical healing! It’s the miracle of the Resurrection! Be encouraged!

Even if your prayer is not answered and your loved one is not healed and your marriage is not reconciled and your financial problems are not solved and your child is not found—there is hope! Jesus was glad because He knew God would be glorified to a far greater extent by the death and resurrection of Lazarus than He would have been by Lazarus’ healing and recovery from sickness.

Would you rejoice with Jesus for the greater miracle that IS coming to you?

Directions for Life / Ann Graham Lotz

 Directions for Life

Blessed are those who keep His testimonies, who seek Him with the whole heart!

Psalm 119:2, nkjv

God as our Creator has specific directions for our lives. If we live according to His directions, our lives work—we are blessed, and we experience life the way it was meant to be lived. If we ignore or reject His directions, we do so to our own detriment and experience much less than He intended.

All around us are broken homes, broken hearts, broken hopes.

But God never intended us to be broken. He did not just create you and me, plop us down on Planet Earth, and say, “Happy birthday! Now you can guess your way through life.” Instead, He has given us directions, which form a pattern that will prevent breakage of our lives and will help to mend the brokenness already present if we follow them.

So . . . open the Creator’s manual for life—the Bible—and follow His directions.

Basis for Hope / Ann Graham Lotz

 Basis for Hope

He who heeds the word wisely will find good, and whoever trusts in the Lord, happy is he.

Proverbs 16:20, nkjv

When God had told Noah He was “going to bring the floodwaters on the earth to destroy all life under the heavens,” He had also said He would establish a covenant with Noah and his family to keep them alive along with all the animals who would come to him (Gen. 6:17–18, 20). Noah had God’s promise that God would bring him through through the Flood to new life on the other side.

Have you been in a situation that has proven to be extremely stressful? It may not have been as stressful as a nuclear holocaust or a devastating flood, but has the pressure been great enough so that consuming fear and worry have been your constant companions?

When you find yourself drowning in overwhelming circumstances, ask God to give you a promise to which you can cling—a promise on which you can base your hope. Hope that is based simply on what you want or what you feel is not a genuine expression of faith. Our hope must be based on God’s word.

Go and Tell / Ann Graham Lotz

 Go and Tell

Many people, because they had heard that he had given this miraculous sign, went out to meet him.

John 12:18, niv

What has Jesus done for you? What things have your family, friends, neighbors, co-workers, classmates, teammates, employers, employees, professors, doctors, lawyer, counselor, pastor, and anyone else heard about that Jesus has done for you? John testified that, “Many people, because they had heard that he had given this miraculous sign, went out to meet him.” Who is seeking to meet Jesus because of what He has done for you?

When have you told someone about how He raised you from spiritual death?

When have you told someone about how He forgave your sin and removed your guilt?

When have you told someone about the disease He healed,

or the prayer He answered,

or the blessing He gave,

or the promise He fulfilled?

Go . . . and tell someone about Jesus!

 

God of the Impossible / Ann Graham Lotz

 God of the Impossible

“With men this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.”

Matthew 19:26, nkjv

God is a God of the impossible. When we are utterly helpless, He is our Helper. But He requires the cooperation of our obedience.

What seemingly impossible task has God given you to do? Have you done it, or are you procrastinating? What if Noah had procrastinated and told God he would build the ark but at a time when he felt he was more rested, more capable, when he had had sufficient training, when his financial situation was more stable, when his family was more self-sufficient, when it was just more convenient? If he had had the attitude many of us do when God gives us an assignment that is beyond our ability, he would have been totally exposed in his helplessness and unprepared for the awesome devastation when it struck.

Instead of procrastination, Noah obeyed without question or hesitation. Noah did everything just as God commanded him (see Gen. 6:22). What impossible task could you accomplish if you would cooperate with God by obeying His Word?

 

God’s Always Available / Ann Graham Lotz

 God’s Always Available

Call to Me, and I will answer you, and show you great and mighty things, which you do not know.

Jeremiah 33:3, nkjv

When you approach God through faith in His Son, God is accessible twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week, twelve months a year for the rest of your life!

For the last several years, I have carried a small cellular phone with me whenever I leave the house. Even when I take my early morning, three-mile walk, I have my cell phone in my pocket. Invariably, when I say good-bye to my husband, or speak with my children or staff before I go out of town, I remind them that I will have my phone with me. If I’m needed, all they have to do is call me. Yet how many times have I noticed that I have a voice message waiting on my phone because either it was out of the range of a tower, or I had turned it off while flying, or muted it, or left it in that other pocketbook!

Praise God! He is never out of range! He is never turned off or tuned out! His ears are never deaf! He is always available, accessible, and attentive to our call!

My Heart’s Cry, (Nashville: W Publishing, 2002). 

Updated after Danny's Passing:

When you approach God through faith in His Son, God is accessible twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week, twelve months a year for the rest of your life!

For the last several years, I have carried a small cellular phone with me whenever I leave the house. Even when I take my early morning, three-mile walk, I have my cell phone in my pocket. Invariably, when I say speak with my children or staff before I go out of town, I remind them that I will have my phone with me. If I’m needed, all they have to do is call me. Yet how many times have I noticed that I have a voice message waiting on my phone because either it was out of the range of a tower, or I had turned it off while flying, or muted it, or left it in that other pocketbook! Praise God! He is never out of range! He is never turned off or tuned out! His ears are never deaf! He is always available, accessible, and attentive to our call!

Worshiping God / Ann Graham Lotz

Worshiping God

God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.

John 4:24, nkjv

To worship God means to attribute worth to God through obedience to God, preoccupation with God, and praise of God. The Samaritan woman at the well in Sychar said, in essence, “Oh, well, I worship God.” And Jesus corrected her, “You Samaritans worship what you do not know.” Why was her worship invalid? Because she was substituting the traditions and rituals of her religion for a personal relationship with God through faith. So Jesus explained, “God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in spirit and in truth” (John 4:24, niv).

What does it mean to worship “in spirit and in truth”? To worship God in spirit means to worship Him in deepest sincerity from the heart as one who is indwelled by the Spirit of God. To worship Him in truth means to worship Him honestly, without hypocrisy, through faith in His Word, both the Living Word, which is Jesus, and the written Word , which is the Bible. 

Our God-Given Counselor / Ann Graham Lotz

 Our God-Given Counselor

It is for your good that I am going away. Unless I go away, the Counselor will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you.

John 16:7, niv

Following supper the night before He was to be crucified, Jesus unburdened His heart to His disciples. He knew He was going not only to the cross but, after the resurrection, back to His Father in heaven. His disciples would be like orphans. Had He taught them all they needed to know?

The disciples must have begun to sense His heavy burden. Without Jesus, how could they ever meet their own needs, much less the needs of the multitude? They had given Himtheir very lives for three years. How could theypossibly manage without Him?

Jesus knew their fears. So He began to tell them how they would go on in His absence. He told them they could live, not just somehow, but triumphantly, because “I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you . . . I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Counselor to be with you forever” (John 14:18, 16, niv, emphasis added). Jesus would remain with them, not physically, but in the invisible person of the Holy Spirit.

When Bad Things Happen / Ann Graham Lotz

 When Bad Things Happen

We know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.

Romans 8:28, niv

Why does God let bad things happen to good people?  to innocent people?  to children?  to me?

 Sometimes His ways seem so hard to understand!

In Romans 8:28, Paul wrote to reassure believers who lived in a city dominated by Nero, a madman with absolute power. He wrote encouragingly, “We know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.”

Phrased another way, Paul was reminding the children of God they can be confident that . . . all things work together for good, brokenness leads to blessing, death leads to life, and suffering leads to glory!

So when bad things happen, just trust Him!  

The Devil’s Already Defeated / Ann Graham Lotz

 The Devil’s Already Defeated

The devil, who deceived them, was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone . . . forever.

Revelation 20:10, nkjv

As a girl growing up in western North Carolina, I loved to hike in the mountains. But whenever I set out, my mother’s admonition, “Watch out for snakes!” would ring in my ears. Although I can remember killing only one snake myself, I was present at various times when snakes were killed by others. Each time I observed a fascinating phenomenon. After the snake was killed, its body invariably continued to twitch until sundown. Even though its head was crushed, rendering it powerless, the dead snake’s writhing body was enough to keep me at a distance. After sundown it would finally lie still.

You and I need to remember that ever since the resurrection of Jesus Christ, Satan has been a defeated foe. His head has been crushed. As you and I seek to climb higher in our faith and service and knowledge of God what we are confronted with is merely the twitching of his defeated body. But sundown is coming! One day even the twitching body of that old Serpent, the Devil, will be destroyed.

The Proof of Love / Ann Graham Lotz

The Proof of Love

But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

Romans 5:8, nkjv

Has someone suggested to you that:

      If God really loved you, He would heal your disease?

      If God really loved you, He would never have allowed you to lose your job?

      If God really loved you, He would bring your spouse back home?

      If God really loved you, you would be healthy and wealthy and problem free?

Yet God has said that the proof of His love is none of those things! The proof of His love is that while we were sinners, passing Jesus by on the road of life, He sent His only, beloved Son to die for us.

Would you thank God, not just for saying, “I love you,” in words, but for proving it?

 

Speaking Up for Jesus / Ann Graham Lotz

 Speaking Up for Jesus

“We cannot help speaking about what we have seen and heard.”

Acts 4:20, niv

It has only been a couple of years since our youngest daughter, Rachel-Ruth, gave birth to our first grandchild—a little girl named Ruth Bell Wright. My husband and I are totally enthralled with this little girl. She fills our hearts! We can’t help talking about her to anyone who will listen. I’m not afraid to talk about her. I don’t plan in advance how I will talk about her. I don’t worry about offending someone with my talk about her. I don’t go to classes to learn how to talk about her. I don’t read books on how to talk about her. I pick up that little girl, feel her snuggle up against me, touch her soft little cheek, and melt! Little Ruth Bell fills my heart! And what fills my heart comes out on my lips!

Why do we seem to make speaking up for Jesus so complicated? If He fills our hearts, He is going to come out on our lips! Like Peter and John, we will not be able to help “speaking about what we have seen and heard” of Him!

We Are God’s Treasure! / Ann Graham Lotz

 We Are God’s Treasure!

“They will be mine,” says the Lord Almighty, “in the day when I make up my treasured possession.”

Malachi 3:17. niv

As we totally yield our lives to the control of God’s Spirit within us, He uses:

the responsibilities and relationships and ridicule, the opportunities and obstacles and obligations, the pressures and pain and problems, the success and sickness and solitude...

He uses all things to work for our ultimate good, which is increasing, progressive, glorious conformity to the image of Jesus Christ. (Rom. 8:28)

We are God’s treasure! When God the Father looked throughout the universe for something to give His only Son in reward for what He had accomplished on earth, the Father handpicked you! You are the Father’s treasure—His priceless gift of love to the Son!