The 260 Journey

Day 19

Today’s Reading: Matthew 19

J. C. Ryle wrote, “The highest form of selfishness is a man content to go to heaven alone.” I don’t ever want to be content to go to heaven alone. I want to take as many as I can with me. But I have some hard cases in my relationship circle that need a miracle. I bet you do too. If you know someone who needs to be saved, fortunately, today’s reading in Matthew 19 gives us hope.

Listen to what Jesus said about God: “With people this is impossible, but with God all things are possible” (verse 26).

With God all things are possible. All things! This is a powerful promise, because of what this verse is connected to. It is a response to a question, which makes this amazing verse even more amazing. It follows after Jesus personally invited a very rich young and powerful man known as the rich young ruler to follow Him. But the man refused. Let’s look at the story in context:

Jesus said to him, “If you wish to be complete, go and sell your possessions and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me.” But when the young man heard this statement, he went away grieving; for he was one who owned much property. And Jesus said to His disciples, “Truly I say to you, it is hard for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven.” (verses 21-23)

And then came the question: “When the disciples heard this, they were very astonished and said, ‘Then who can be saved?’” (verse 25).

They were probably thinking of others who needed to follow Jesus, and asked this profound question. Our question will be more like this: “Will my mother, my father, my family ever get saved?” And the answer to that question is . . .

With God all things are possible!

Who do you want to be saved? Who have you been praying for? Over their name declare: “With God all things are possible.”

Those words are for your unsaved loved ones every time you think there is no way. That is the context that gives hope for us who have people we really want to become Christians. Think of the hardest case and the most helpless condition and then announce to hell and Satan, “With God all things are possible!”

Corrie ten Boom said it like this: “If all things are possible with God, then all things are possible to him who believes in Him.”

If God is all you have, then you have all you need.

Day 18

Today’s Reading: Matthew 18

When I was working toward my undergrad degree in corporate finance, the students would say cash is king. When I was doing my graduate work in theology, the students would say context is king.

So many Bible verses get their punch from context, not from a denominational bent. One of those punchy passages is in Matthew 18. I couldn’t tell you how many prayer meetings I have attended where not many people showed up and the pastor said, “All I know is that Jesus said where two or three are gathered together there I am in that place.”

I have this sneaky suspicion that Jesus was not giving us a sentence we can use when we have bad attendance—where we just quote Matthew 18:20, and everyone is content and off the hook.

Let’s be honest, the Bible is full of people who met God by themselves and not with two or three people.

But context is king. This verse ends Jesus’ huge thought on fixing a broken relationship. Listen to the verses connected with it:

If your brother sins, go and show him his fault in private; if he listens to you, you have won your brother. But if he does not listen to you, take one or two more with you, so that by the mouth of two or three witnesses every fact may be confirmed. If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church . . . For where two or three have gathered together in My name, I am there in their midst. (Matthew 18:15-17, 20)

Two important thoughts:

1. It’s interesting that Jesus used the word church only twice in the entire Bible. One was in the chapter before when He said the gates of hell can’t prevail against His church. And second, when dealing with broken relationships. Devils and broken relationships . . . think about that—two of the church’s biggest enemies.

2. In the powerful context of two or three being gathered, I believe Jesus was saying more than encouraging us when there’s bad attendance. He was saying, “When you choose to fix a relationship in My house, and do it the right way, I want you to know that when you get the parties in the room, My presence plans on being there.” What an incredible promise.

The Bible reminds us over and over that we not only need God in our lives, we need people to be part of our lives as well. God wired us that way and designed life in such a way that life works better with people rather than in isolation. Relational isolation is especially dangerous. Just because it’s difficult doesn’t mean we give up on community.

To be certain, important and vital relationships, though they bring joy to our lives, can also have the potential of bringing pain and conflict. Conflict in and of itself is not bad, but unresolved conflict is. Unresolved conflict creates a toxic environment.

I think that’s why Peter responds to Jesus’ words with this question: “Lord, how often shall my brother sin against me and I forgive him? Up to seven times?” (verse 21).

Jesus didn’t let him off the hook. He told him, “I do not say to you, up to seven times, but up to seventy times seven” (verse 22).

Remember this math equation that Jesus brought up, seventy times seven?

It has to do with forgiveness. It’s connected to how often should I forgive my brother. Sounds like everyone has an account of 490 offenses with each other. I think C. S. Lewis gave the best insight on this idea: “We need to forgive our brother seventy times seven not only for 490 offenses but for one offense.”

To forgive for the moment is not difficult. But to go on forgiving, to forgive the same offense again every time it recurs to the memory—there’s the real tussle.

We forgive . . . and a week later some chain of thought carries us back to the original offense, and we discover the old resentment blazing away again. And we forgive again.

Wow, what an insight! Seventy times seven is not forgiving 490 different offenses but forgiving one offense 490 times. Forgiving over and over when our mind is plagued.

When the two or three whom Jesus is talking about try to work out an issue between them, Jesus says in essence, “Plan on Me being in attendance, because this is really important.” Jesus is not only committed to your relationship with Him, He is committed to healthy relationships with the others who are in your life, even if it takes 490 times to get it right and resolved inside and out.

Day 17

Today’s Reading: Matthew 17

If you had a chance to ask God a “why?” question, what would you ask him? Why did this bad thing happen to me? Why did my mom pass away?

How about a personal failure question? That’s what we find in Matthew 17! The disciples failed at something they were empowered to do and did not know why they’d failed.

The disciples had tried to heal a young man and were unable, so the man brought his son to Jesus. Let’s pick up the story:

“Lord, have mercy on my son, for he is a lunatic and is very ill; for he often falls into the fire and often into the water. I brought him to your disciples, and they could not cure him.” And Jesus answered and said, “You unbelieving and perverted generation, how long shall I be with you? How long shall I put up with you? Bring him here to me.” And Jesus rebuked him, and the demon came out of him, and the boy was cured at once.

Then the disciples came to Jesus privately and said, “Why could we not drive it out?” And He said to them, “Because of the littleness of your faith; for truly I say to you, if you have faith the size of a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move; and nothing will be impossible to you. But this kind does not go out except by prayer and fasting.” (verses 15-21)

Verse 19 highlights the private why—“Why couldn’t we drive the demon out?”

I love that the disciples asked this question. People don’t do this today when they finish a task. It’s rare to find someone asking for critique to get better, but these disciples did. We live in a culture that will blame others but not inspect ourselves.

Jesus’ answer is astounding and multi-layered:

• The big issue Jesus says is: faith.
• The problem is the size of it: it’s little.
• Because of that: failure.

Jesus refers to mustard-seed faith: if the mustard seed is little and that’s all you need to get big stuff moving, then you’re not in the ballpark of “little faith.” Your faith is smaller than little, it’s microscopic because nothing got changed.

And then he tells you what can get your microscopic faith kick-started and moving toward little: prayer and fasting.

Faith is not a concept about God. Faith is like a lens on how big we see God. When Jesus spoke about prayer and fasting as His follow-up to their little faith failure, He said that prayer and fasting will help get the God lenses on.

How? It’s about connecting fasting to prayer. Does fasting make God big? Not really.

Fasting is not a hunger strike to get God’s attention. Fasting creates space for God. To make a meal during this time period was not going to Whole Foods or Costco, it was an all-day affair from killing an animal to cooking it. Fasting meant creating space to pray, space for God.

When someone fasts they are giving God more time, and when you get more time with God, trust me, God gets bigger. That’s why I believe you can fast from many different types of things and not just food—social media, television, certain activities—to create space for prayer.

How do you deal with demons? Not by deliverance classes and learning crazy ways to deal with the dark world. Create more space for God by fasting. When you do that, God gets bigger. When God gets bigger, faith starts getting bigger. And when faith gets bigger, then mountains (and demons) start moving.

The way you get a grain of faith is by praying and fasting. A private “why” did not help only the disciples. What great insight for us to have when we need some movement on things that won’t budge.

Day 16

Today’s Reading: Matthew 16

Poor Alexander. He was having a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day. Maybe you’ve read about his day?

From the moment he woke up, one terrible thing after another horrible thing happened to him. From finding gum in his hair to tripping over his skateboard to dropping his sweater in the sink while the water was running. And when his brothers found wonderful prizes in their cereal boxes, Alexander found . . . nothing.

On his way to school, he was squished in the center seat, and at school his teacher picked on him. After school he had a dentist appointment and the dentist found Alexander had a cavity.

And on and on it went—one catastrophe after another. Alexander decides he wants to move to Australia, where they probably never have bad days—but his mom tells him they do have bad days there too. What a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day Alexander had.

Alexander had a bad day. Australians have a bad day. And what’s not hard to believe is that Christians do too. We have no promises from God that once you and I become a Christian, all our days are always going to be great. But somehow we forget that when we have bad days!

In today’s reading, we see a disciple who had a great day—and then he had terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day. Or to put it another way, he had a Simon day, a Peter day, and a Satan day—all in one day.

You already read this chapter, but let’s take another look at Matthew 16:

“Who do you say that I am?” Simon Peter answered, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” And Jesus said to him, “Blessed are you, Simon Barjona, because flesh and blood did not reveal this to you, but My Father who is in heaven. I also say to you that you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build My church; and the gates of Hades will not overpower it. (verses 15-18)

Wow! Jesus changed Simon’s name based on his revelation of Jesus. None of the other disciples had this happen.

But then Peter had his name changed again. This is where it becomes the terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day:

Jesus began to show His disciples that He must go to Jerusalem, and suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and be raised up on the third day. Peter took Him aside and began to rebuke Him, saying, “God forbid it, Lord! This shall never happen to You.” But He turned and said to Peter, “Get behind Me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to Me; for you are not setting your mind on God’s interests, but man’s.” (verses 21-23)

What a change—from Simon to Peter to Satan. Have you ever felt like that? You’re going along having a Simon day (ordinary), and something happens in which you move to a Peter day (revelation that God is awesome), and then all of a sudden you get smacked with a Satan day (get behind Me).

In all of those days, though, you are loved by God. Your worst day does not make you any less accepted by God. The prodigal son covered in mud never stopped being a son, did he? He was still loved by his father. Jesus didn’t stop loving Peter, did He? No. And the same is true of you.

Author Brennan Manning does a good job of giving us a glimpse into the revolutionary love of God: “His love is never, never, never based on our performance, never conditioned by our moods—of elation or depression. The furious love of God knows no shadow of alteration or change. It is always reliable. And always tender.”

I read those words while traveling from Queens to Brooklyn on the F Train, and I started crying.

The revolutionary thinking that God loves me as I am and not as I should be requires radical rethinking and profound emotional readjustment. Our religion never begins with what we do for God. It always starts with what God has done for us, the great and wondrous things that God dreamed of and achieved for us in Christ Jesus.

What makes Jesus amazing is that He absolutely knows you and me and every evil and wicked thought and not only accepts us but furiously loves us—even when we mess up.

Your behavior does not dictate His behavior. He is who He is. He doesn’t change based on who you are. Your actions don’t control His character. Second Timothy 2:13 tells us, “If we are unfaithful, he remains faithful, for he cannot deny who he is” (NLT).

I love this verse! He cannot deny who He is. God is absolutely consistent. He can’t be anything but who He is. Your bad day does not change God.

Regardless of how your day will go today or if it already went, here is one unchanging thought to carry with you:

We change, we get moody . . . but God is always the same, which means no matter what kind of day you’re having, He loves you.

Day 15

Today’s Reading: Matthew 15

Abraham Lincoln famously stated, “I have been driven many times to my knees by the overwhelming conviction that I had absolutely no other place to go.” In today’s reading, we find a woman who had absolutely no other place to go but on her knees in front of the Son of God. This has to be the craziest story on prayer in the entire New Testament. Sometimes it’s a fight to get an answer to prayer and prayer can seem like a wrestling match. In fact, Paul used one of the Greek words for prayer when he wrote in Colossians 4:12 (CSB): “Epaphras, who is one of you, a servant of Christ Jesus, sends you greetings. He is always wrestling for you in his prayers.”

Wrestling in prayer for you. The Greek word is agonizomai. What does that sound like? Agonizing. That is what we see in today’s story.

They call her “The Syrophoenician Woman.”

Jesus . . . withdrew into the district of Tyre and Sidon. And a Canaanite woman from that region came out and began to cry out, saying, “Have mercy on me, Lord, Son of David; my daughter is cruelly demon-possessed.” But He did not answer her a word. And His disciples came and implored Him, saying, “Send her away, because she keeps shouting at us.” But He answered and said, “I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.” But she came and began to bow down before Him, saying, “Lord, help me!” And He answered and said, “It is not good to take the children’s bread and throw it to the dogs.” But she said, “Yes, Lord; but even the dogs feed on the crumbs which fall from their masters’ table.” Then Jesus said to her, “O woman, your faith is great; it shall be done for you as you wish.” And her daughter was healed at once. (Matthew 15:21-28)

This woman participated in a wrestling match to get her demon-possessed daughter healed. The end of the story was that she received what she asked for. The journey there, though, is worth discussing.

This Gentile woman came to Jesus and faced three big hurdles to get her answer—three hurdles we too must wrestle through if we want to experience a breakthrough in our prayers, especially when we’re involved in a wrestling match for someone else’s deliverance.

An old preacher friend used to say that we must “pray the price.”

And this woman did.

The first hurdle she had to overcome is receiving silence. When she begged God for an answer, “He did not answer her a word” (verse 23).

Can we pray when we feel like nothing is being heard or responded to? This woman was crying and getting nothing. This is one of the battles we face in prayer. We’re doing all the talking but not hearing anything back.

Do we stop?

Do we give up?

I think it’s a test. As Rick Warren says, “The teacher is always silent when the test is given.” God wants to know how serious we are.

The second hurdle is being overlooked for others.

Jesus told his disciples, “I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel” (verse 24). He spoke but not to her. She had to overhear what Jesus said. She did not even get a direct word. She was listening to Jesus explain and speak to others.

Others are getting God but not you. Can you get over the hurdle when God does for others before He does for you?

Still she did not stop.

The third hurdle is getting a standard answer but not the answer.

Jesus told her, “It’s not good to take the children’s bread and give it to the dogs” (verse 26). These seem like harsh words but they were simply standard lines. The children’s bread is what God gave to Israel. Dogs is what Israel called all non-Jews. She was listening to standard lines.

Instead of being offended, she fought through the standard answers everyone hears. Still she didn’t give up. She told Him, essentially, “All this is good but I need my daughter healed.”

And Jesus’ response? “‘O woman, your faith is great; it shall be done for you as you wish.’ And her daughter was healed at once” (verse 28).

Prayer is wrestling. And to get your answer, you have to fight on when you receive silence.

You have to fight on when everyone else is getting an answer and you are being overlooked.

You have to fight on when you receive only standard answers.

You fight on. Just as the woman did, you don’t give up, you don’t stop praying. Keep wrestling!