CamDevo

“From the rising of the sun to its setting, let the name of the Lord be praised.”
‭‭Psalms‬ ‭113‬:‭3‬ ‭CSB‬‬

I struggle with praise. I find it hard to praise other people, and I also find it hard to praise God. I guess it’s just not something I have much experience with. On the other hand I find gratitude and saying thank you very easy. I thank people for big things and small quite often. And the first thing I do when I pray is thank God for His many blessings. But thankfulness and praise are not the same thing at all, although they are often mistakenly used interchangeably. After studying the Psalms, especially David’s writings, I have learned a lot about praise. The big difference between gratefulness and praise is that gratefulness is all about me while praise is all about God. When I thank God for a beautiful sunrise, I’m telling Him that I appreciate how His art has affected me. It made my morning more beautiful and joyful. When I praise God, I tell Him I appreciate His creativity in making such art and marvel at the fact that He makes this art whether anyone is there to notice it or not. I simple tell Him how beautiful His character is. When I was first studying praise, I wondered why God wants me to praise Him. Is He really that needy and insecure that He had to create people to tell Him how wonderful He is? Ha, no! After writing new praises every morning in a “praise journal”, I quickly learned the real reason God wants me to praise Him. It is really for me, not for Him. He doesn’t need anything from me. But it is incredibly helpful for me to spend time contemplating how big, powerful, holy, loving, beautiful, patient, creative, funny, forgiving (and so much more!) God is. It increases my faith, builds my trust of Him, and calms my fears. When I praise God, I am reminded of who He is and how silly of me it is to worry about anything.

Dear Beautiful Creator,

Thank you so much for being you! You are amazing. You created everything, you are everywhere, and you know everything. You fill the vast space between the stars as well as the areas between the molecules of my thumb with your holiness and love. You are more than I can imagine and yet you love it when I try. Praise to you, oh Lord!

“But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his possession, so that you may proclaim the praises of the one who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. Once you were not a people, but now you are God’s people; you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.”
‭‭1 Peter‬ ‭2‬:‭9‬-‭10‬ ‭CSB‬‬

These days saying the words “a chosen race” does not bring up positive feelings for most people. In fact, the idea that one race of people is any better than any other race has been the cause of countless acts of violence, riots, oppression, murder, not to mention all out war. But the truth of the Bible is that God did have a “chosen race” and that was Abraham’s descendants, the Israelites. God chose the Jews out of all the people that ever existed on the face of the earth to be His royal priesthood, His people called by His name. But God’s intention for this chosen race was not to rule the other nations. It was not about supremacy. It was not about power or superiority or being on the top of any list. Being God’s chosen race simply meant that He intended to reveal Himself in a special way to those people so that they in turn could bless the rest of us with what they learned about God. And from that race would come the salvation the entire world needs. Well, that Salvation did come from God’s chosen race. Jesus was born into the world as a Jew. And His sacrifice gave us all the chance to enter into God’s new chosen people. As a follower of Jesus, I am God’s child, a member of His royal priesthood. But again, this does not mean that I am somehow better than anyone else in any way! It means God has given me the opportunity serve Him: to spread the Good News about Him, to shine His light into the darkness around me, and to bless people who don’t yet know Him by doing good and representing Him to them with love.

Dear God,

Thank you for allowing me to enter into your “chosen race” through Jesus’s sacrifice. I know the fear, pride, and hatred that exist among your children make you very sad. Teach me what I can do today to shine your light into dark places, to speak the Good News about your love, and to humbly serve as one of your chosen people.

“Trust in the Lord forever, because in the Lord, the Lord himself, is an everlasting rock!”
‭‭Isaiah‬ ‭26‬:‭4‬ ‭CSB‬‬

Everlasting isn’t a word I use in my everyday life. It isn’t used in my culture either, with the exception perhaps of the Everlasting Gobstopper, the fictional candy from Willie Wonka’s Chocolate Factory. It’s fictional because this candy changed color and flavor as you sucked on it but never got any smaller. In real life, that is too good to be true. Nothing lasts forever… except God! I guess that’s why I have such a hard time understanding concepts like eternity and everlasting and infinite and always. I have no experience with permanence. Even “permanent” markers fade. Tattoos shrink and fade and sag. Mountains slowly erode or suddenly explode. There’s not one thing in my existence that is forever. But God claims to be. He calls Himself I AM because He is, was, and always will be. Just this one characteristic of God alone is mind-boggling, and yet there are so many more wonderful, astonishing things about Him: His power, His wisdom, His love, His beauty, His creativity, His passion, His holiness, His perfection, His vastness… He is way beyond my ability to comprehend, but He asks me to try. To believe. To have faith. To trust Him forever.

Dear Everlasting God,

I am so amazed at your foreverness! I can’t understand it, but I believe it. And I trust you. When everything else in my life shifts and wobbles, I trust you to be here with the same love and wisdom and forgiveness and patience and truth that you have always shown your people. Thank you for being my everlasting rock!

“The name of the Lord is a strong tower; the righteous run to it and are protected.”
‭‭Proverbs‬ ‭18‬:‭10‬ ‭CSB‬‬

It’s interesting to me that this verse says “the name of the Lord” is a strong tower, not “the Lord” is a strong tower. It makes me think of the commandment that says, “Thou shalt not take the Lord’s name in vain.” God’s name has power. A lot of power. And that power needs to be wielded wisely. So how exactly do I wield the Lord’s name, aka “run to it”? And how do I use it wisely? I guess the wisely part is answered by the commandment. Don’t use it “in vain.” In other words, don’t use it carelessly. Don’t utter “Jesus” unless I want to get Jesus’s attention. That leaves the question of how to use His name when I really do need His protection or guidance or reassurance? How do I run to that strong tower of a name? It’s so easy. Just utter His name with intent, with the urgency I feel. Pray. “Dear Jesus, help me!” Saying that with humility and expectation is all it takes. God is always ready with His door open wide for me to come running in from the storm, into His strong tower of a name.

Dear Jesus,

Thank you so much for your powerful name and for making that powerful name available to me with just a word, a prayer. What a gift! I’m so relieved that you are always here, always available, always loving me. Forgive me for the times when I forget you and spend time worrying instead. Remind me to call on your name at any time, at all times.

“and my people, who bear my name, humble themselves, pray and seek my face, and turn from their evil ways, then I will hear from heaven, forgive their sin, and heal their land.”
‭‭2 Chronicles‬ ‭7‬:‭14‬ ‭CSB‬‬

This verse is a favorite. And for good reason! What a comfort to hear God speak to me this way. It’s a relief to know there’s always a way out of my sin and bad choices. God promises to forgive me. I have heard someone say this verse wasn’t meant for me. It was only meant for the Israelites after Solomon had completed and dedicated the temple. A very specific time, place, audience and circumstance. While this is true – God did say this at that time, to those people, for that reason – but I believe it is also true for me and my nation today. It is consistent with God’s character, consistent with Jesus’s message of redemption, consistent with everything I know about God from reading His entire word. If His people – people who believe Jesus and accept Him as their Savior – if we humble ourselves, pray and seek His face, and turn from all our many wicked ways, He will forgive our sin and heal our land. My land is America, and it sure needs healing. If we Christians, God’s people who bear His name, do this individually and collectively in churches and other organizations, frequently and intentionally, I know that God will keep this promise.

Dear God,

Thank you for this promise. I know you are a faithful God who keeps your promises! I pray today that the Christians in my land take this promise seriously. We need healing! Show me exactly how I can do this in my own life today. And teach me how I can inspire and participate in the collective humbling, praying, seeking, and turning you desire.

“For there is one God and one mediator between God and mankind, the man Christ Jesus,”
‭‭1 Timothy‬ ‭2‬:‭5‬ ‭CSB‬‬

This is a pretty critical thing to know about Christianity, and yet it can easily get lost. There is one God and one way to God. It’s not enough to be good. It’s not enough to do good. It can be comforting to imagine that if I have a friend who is a very good person, God will somehow make an exception for her, even though she said she doesn’t believe God exists or that He is one among many possible gods, or she just never cared to decide what she believed… But that is just wishful thinking. Unless my friend claims Jesus as her Savior, she will die one day, and that will be the end of her. So, if I really care about my friend, what should I do? Pray for her! A lot! And that’s exactly how Paul starts the chapter today’s verse is found in. He says: “…I urge that petitions, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for everyone…” (vs. 1‬) because “it pleases God our Savior, who wants everyone to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.” (vs. 3-4) If I care about my unbelieving friends I should pray for them urgently and often, and be available to tell them about the one God I know and love when He moves in their hearts.

Dear God,

Thank you for the people who taught me about you and prayed for me. There are many good people in my life who do not know you yet. Remind me to pray for them and teach me how. Bring them to mind. And please work in their hearts so they are ready to hear about you. Give me the words to say and the courage to speak them when you tell me the time is right. Please make it obvious!

“In every way I’ve shown you that it is necessary to help the weak by laboring like this and to remember the words of the Lord Jesus, because he said, ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive.’”
‭‭Acts‬ ‭20‬:‭35‬ ‭CSB‬‬

Life isn’t fair. It was never intended to be. God created an enormous variety of creatures. They have different skills and strengths and habitats. A world with this kind of diversity can’t be fair. For it to be fair every creature would have to be exactly the same. Creation is good though. God created it perfectly, in fact. He intended every creature to have a job, be happy and good at its its job, be rewarded by that job, and be joyful in its place in the world. The dung beetle doesn’t long to eat the leaves at the top of the trees like the giraffe. He’s happy to roll the giraffe’s dung home instead. To the giraffe maybe it doesn’t seem “fair” to have great views and fresh air when the dung beetle toils in the mud? But to the dung beetle, it might not seem fair to enjoy the cool shade of the moist grass while the giraffe must sweat and strain in the hot sun. This “unfairness” is good. The dung beetle and the giraffe have exactly the tools they need to do exactly what they do which provides a crucial service in fertilizing and aerating the soil. It’s a perfect system. Or it was. Until sin entered the picture. All manner of brokenness came with it: disease, envy, selfishness, resource scarcity, greed, poverty, etc. It also distorted the inequities in God’s creation. The natural “unfairness” became imbalanced by greed and selfishness. Instead of sharing resources, people started to hoard and steal. People were, and still are, divided into those with power and those without. The haves and the have-nots. This new kind of unfairness is not good and not what God intended. Today’s verse is talking about one of the inequities of life and what Jesus’s followers should do about it: help the weak. The haves (even if I have just a little) should help the have-nots. If God gave me a marketable skill, I should work hard at it. The money I earn should be used to help those who have less than I do. But the haves may think this is unfair. They whine, “I should be able to enjoy my earnings myself and do what I want! Those have-nots should get a job or work harder or stop being so lazy or foreign or disabled or… weak.” So many sick judgments and excuses. Meanwhile the have-nots may be thinking that it’s not fair that the haves got to go to school while they had to stay home and care for their siblings because their mom was hospitalized or that they were born with a heart defect or any of a million brokenness issues. None of this unfairness is good. And complaining about unfairness isn’t going to change anything. Until Jesus comes and remakes creation perfect again, my job is to use everything God has blessed me with to help tilt the balance toward “good unfairness” again by blessing others. Without whining about life not being fair!

Dear God,

Thank you for your perfect and beautiful creation. I long to see it the way you originally intended it to be. In the meantime, teach me to stop caring about what is fair or not fair and to just obey you. Thank you for all you have given me. Show me how and where to be a generous giver today.

“For the Lord is good, and his faithful love endures forever; his faithfulness, through all generations.”
‭‭Psalms‬ ‭100‬:‭5‬ ‭CSB‬‬

This verse is from a short Psalm titled “Be Thankful” in my translation. This is the last verse in that chapter. It sums up why I should be thankful. Not matter what is happening in my life or the world. No matter how I feel or how I’m treated. No matter what has happened to me, what I have done, or what I see coming my way, my attitude should be one of humble gratitude. Because God is good, He is faithful, and this is always true. If I believe this, and if I know God the way the psalmist does, this is definitely cause for celebration – triumphant shouts of gladness and joyful songs of praise, as the Psalm describes. God is good. All the time! Even when things seem very bad.

Dear God,

Thank you for being good. It seems such a simple little word but it really describes you. Good. I can trust you. I can have confidence that your plan is a good one. Your will cannot be thwarted, and your will is good! Thank you! Help me to remember today how good you are and to trust you with everything.

“Give us today our daily bread.”
‭‭Matthew‬ ‭6‬:‭11‬ ‭CSB‬‬

This is a very simple part of a very simple prayer that Jesus gave the disciples as an example of how to pray, especially when praying out loud with a group. (Hence His use of “we,” “us,” and “our”, not “I,” “me,” and “my”.) We call it the Lord’s Prayer today. I was taught to memorize and recite it in Sunday School. But Jesus didn’t mean for me to pray these exact words necessarily. He intended this as a blueprint that I can use to create prayers that are more personal. Using my own words I can fill out the topics that Jesus indicated are important. Those topics include things like praise, requests, confession, gratitude, humble submission… Today’s verse highlights the topic of ‘requests.’ It’s easy to fall into the habit of making this topic the only topic of prayer. Or at least the biggest. Secular society seems to think that’s all prayer is. You “pray for” this or “pray for” that. You don’t just pray. I notice though that today’s verse is the shortest sentence in the Lord’s Prayer. Prior to teaching the Lord’s Prayer, Jesus mentions that brevity in describing my needs to God is perfectly fine, especially in corporate prayer. God knows what we need so I don’t need to go on and on with details and explanations. Just ask for what we need and move along, trusting that God loves us and will provide what is best. That said, Jesus also didn’t say I had to be brief in my personal prayer, as if God were too busy. Jesus Himself spent entire nights in prayer. God’s goal with prayer is to build my relationship with Him. What an amazing thing that the Creator of everything wants to chat with me, to have a relationship with me! There’s no relationship in a laundry list of requests. Prayer is so much more than meeting my basic needs. In fact it’s hardly about me at all! It’s all about God – who He is, what He’s done, what He can do, and what He wants.

Dear God,

Thank you so much for sending Jesus to teach us practical things like how to pray. In fact, thank you for prayer in general! I’m so grateful that you know what I need. Help me to trust you to take care of me when I’m focused on working toward your Kingdom coming and your will being done.

“Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever.”
‭‭Hebrews‬ ‭13‬:‭8‬ ‭CSB‬‬

American society is obsessed by all things new. It’s how we ended up with everything becoming disposable. People used to actually repair things, but now we just throw them away and get a new one. Partly because things are made cheaply, but also because consumers love “new and improved!” whether it’s true or not. This love of new has proven to be unwise. Our Earth and its creatures are suffering under the weight of all the disposed-of plastic. I want to wean myself off of my love for new things. I’m trying, but it’s true they don’t make things like they used to. With cheap plastic parts, it’s often impossible, or very cost-prohibitive, to fix things. But one thing that doesn’t change, hasn’t changed, and will never change is Jesus. What He taught during His life on Earth is still valid, valuable, true, and critical to knowing God. The sacrifice He made was made once for all time for everyone. Christianity shouldn’t change either. One thing I should never see on a church sign is “new and improved!” The basic facts of Christianity are the same and will never change. Jesus died for me and if I humbly accept Him as my Savior, I am saved. Period. I am new and improved at that point! But Jesus and how to follow Him are, and always will be, the same. Simple. Love Him by loving others.

Dear God,

Thank you so much for your unchanging love. It doesn’t wear out. There is never a new version that I must download. It isn’t affected in any way by my behavior or choices or whims or emotions. You love me fully with perfect love. I’m so grateful! Teach me to reflect your love onto the people you place in my path today and tomorrow.