Daniel Higginbotham

Seek the Lord

Recently I’ve started to read through a Psalm and an Proverb each day. Typically, this is a spiritual discipline I try to start each day with. I am reminded of this hopeful expectation from the Scripture: I have stored up your word in my heart, that I might not sin against you. (Psalm 119:11 ESV). In the Scriptures, Jesus reminds us to abide in Him (see John 15:3-5). Because your relationship with Christ is the most important thing you will ever cultivate, I pray that you will spend time in prayer, studying the Scripture, and private worship every day.

Today I read through Psalm 107, there is a repeated theme throughout the text: Then they cried to the LORD in their trouble, and he delivered them from their distress. (Psalm 107:6) As you read the Psalm, you’ll discover a pattern: People wander and suffer apart from God, their suffering causes them to cry out to and seek the Lord, and in His gracious love, the God of creation does what only He can do.

As I look back over my life, there have been so many instances of great suffering, pain, grief, trials, and tribulation that drove me to my knees. In those moments, the Spirit of God graciously called me to Him and I experienced the love, grace, mercy, kindness, presence, and help of God. There seems to be a frustrating reality at work: In prosperity, man seems to forsake His creator. It often takes pain and suffering for God to capture our attention, then our affection, and then our heart.

I wonder how dramatically different our lives might look if instead of coming to God as our last resort, He was our first response. I wonder if instead of expecting a vibrant, intimate, strong relationship to happen by accident, we intentionally, intelligently, and regularly drew near to the Lord. There seems to be a spiritual premise in the Scripture where God calls on us to seek Him and draw near to Him as He draws near to us.

The writer of James reminds us this way: Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. (James 4:8 ESV) I’m reminded that the type of relationship with God my soul is desperate for won’t happen by accident. This really shouldn’t be a surprise… every strong, meaningful, lasting relationship requires intentionality, perseverance, and determination. Here is the beautiful thing, when we draw near to God in faith, because we are clothed in the righteousness of Christ, our loving heavenly Father draws near to us!

Today, I hope it won’t take trials and tribulations to drive you into the presence of God. It is my hope that each of us learns to truly treasure and yearn for a deeper relationship with God. Simply, let us learn to walk with Christ in prosperity and in pain. Let us draw near to Christ in the good times and the bad. Let us trust our gracious God with both the blessings and the frustrations. No matter where life finds you today, I hope you will cry out to the Lord and when He delivers you from your distress, praise Him and testify of His incredible love!

Oh give thanks to the LORD, for he is good, for his steadfast love endures forever! Let the redeemed of the LORD say so, whom he has redeemed from trouble (Psalm 107:1-2 ESV)

By Daniel Higginbotham, ago

The Reality of Sin

It has been said that sin would be far less attractive if we had to pay the cost upon receipt. Of course, the Scripture tells us this truth: For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Romans 6:23, emphasis added) As I sit here contemplating the truth of this Scripture, I am reminded that the payment, that is the results of our sin is death. One commentator remarked that when we sin, something dies. With those things in mind, do we handle sin as seriously as the Scripture?

If I’m being vulnerable, I don’t always see sin the way God sees sin. If I did, I think I would be far more serious about praying through, battling against, and seeking God’s grace and help to walk in freedom and victory (see John 8:32 and Romans 8:37). When speaking of sin, Jesus uses strong, figurative language to demonstrate a key Biblical truth. Jesus says it like this: And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. For it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body go into hell. (Matthew 5:30 ESV) Of course, Jesus isn’t commanding us to literally cut off our hands or other body parts to combat sin, if so we would all be walking around with far fewer hands to serve Him.

What does Jesus want us to grasp? The serious nature of sin and the attitude we should have towards it. Most of us, whether we want to confess it or not, have a far different relationship with sin in our life. Some of us tolerate it. Some of us nurture it. Some of us play with it or entertain it. Some of us justify it, excuse it, or blame it on others. Yet, the call of Jesus is for us to be deadly serious about our sin, confess in humility our inability to do anything meaningful or lasting about on our own, and draw near to Him to allow His strength and grace to radically change our lives.

In my teaching before I’ve tried to help visualize many of our relationships with sin this way. Sin, left unchecked, unconfessed, and unrepented, starts off as a cute little kitten. Over time the kitten develops, it becomes stronger, faster, and more intelligent. After time, and the time can vary depending on a variety of factors, the once small, cute thing has become a deadly predator that is stalking us, controlling us, and ruling over our lives. It has been written somewhere: Kill sin before it kills you.

This is where Romans 12:9 becomes instrumental in our journey against sin and all the things that influence our lives. Paul writes it like this: Let love be genuine. Abhor what is evil; hold fast to what is good. (Romans 12:9 ESV) First, love is primary even in our quest to live victorious lives filled with Christ holiness and the fruit of the Spirit (see Galatians 5:22-23). If we truly love God and love those created in His image, the way we think about sin and live our lives will be radically influenced by this truth.

Next, we are called to abhor “what is evil.” We must have our sense of right and wrong firmly established in the Scripture and the character of God. We must confess and respond in faith to the things that Bible calls evil. We don’t get to redefine, ignore, or even reject what the Bible reveals concerning God’s moral character and His will for our lives. If we truly abhor what is evil, that is we regard (it) with disgust and hatred, this is going to change how we live our lives, what we expose ourselves to, and what we engage with or participate in. 

Lastly, we don’t just hate the evil in the world and in our lives, we “hold fast to what is good.” We give up the things of this world as we cling to Christ and the truth of God’s Word. Today, I challenge you to prayerfully and carefully reflect on your own life and your belief concerning sin. Do you have a Biblical approach to sin or are your thoughts and ideas influenced by worldliness in opposition to God? Spoiler alert: There isn’t a third option.

I leave you with Paul’s practical advice for us as true disciples of Jesus:

Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things. (Philippians 4:8 ESV, emphasis added).

By Daniel Higginbotham, ago

A Crossroads for Christians

Unless you’ve totally buried your head in the sand, the growing unrest, anxiety, fear, and uncertainty in society hasn’t escaped your notice. Nightly the news, social media, and alternative media sources carry the headlines about unrest, protest, violence, death, and war. For so long, many have tried to dismiss the growing lawlessness as just more visible because of our 24/7 connected world instead of accepting the fact that entire societies are descending into a seeming dark abyss.

In Matthew 24, a chapter rich in prophetic promises of Jesus concerning the events leading up to the end of human history, we find this promise: And because lawlessness will be increased, the love of many will grow cold. (Matthew 24:12 ESV) As a student of the Scripture and a devoted follower of Jesus, I watch the events unfolding in the world around me through a Biblical lens. More than once lately I have found myself growing hardened against the heart wrenching reality of where society is heading because of the influx of images, videos, and information about world events. I wonder if you can relate?

As Christ followers, especially in the west, I believe we are at a crossroads where a defining choice must be made. We can allow the events unfolding in our world to stoke fear, hate, anger, and bitterness, or we can respond in a countercultural but Biblical way. We can allow the actions of lost, broken people to make us hardened and cold, or we can fix our eyes on Jesus and humbly ask God for help living as bright lights in an ever darkening world. We can complain, worry, get anxious, and even want to get even, or we can share the incredible love of Christ with a world that needs the hope of the Gospel now more than ever.

As I thought about this devotion, I felt a great need to challenge myself and those who love Jesus. We can either talk about the love of Christ, or we can actually allow His love to infuse our thoughts, words, and actions. The enemy is content to allow us to become a tool he uses to perform his dastardly work (see John 10:10), or we can live in the abundant life and freedom of Christ. The question remains… in an ever more polarized, divided, hate filled world, how can we guard our hearts against growing cold? Here are a few practical, Biblical tips I hope will help as we eagerly await the coming of our King.

  • Abide in Christ (see John 15:4-5) – We desperately need to intentionally, regularly, and expectantly spend time with Jesus. We need to spend time in His Word, time in private worship, and time in intentional prayer.
  • Fix our eyes on Jesus (see Hebrews 12:1-2) – A.W. Tozer famously remarked: “Anything that keeps me from my Bible is my enemy, no matter how harmless it might seem.” We need to limit (or even eliminate) our time consuming things that fill us with worry, anxiety, and fear. Instead, let us fix our eyes on Jesus.
  • Come to Jesus for rest (see Matthew 11:28, Hebrews 4:16, and 1 Peter 5:7) – As time progresses, every true follower of Jesus must humbly draw near to Christ as they seek the rest, peace, joy, and contentment that only Jesus can give. When we draw near, we should expect God to keep His promises to give us rest for our souls, mercy and grace to help us in our time of need, and His care to help us with our anxieties.
  • Get plugged in to a Biblical, Christ centered church (see Hebrews 10:24-25) – Each of us desperately needs to be plugged into a local, Biblical, Christ centered church. None of us are called to be “lone ranger Christians.” The Church is a source of strength, encouragement, and accountability that all of us need to grow and mature as believers. If we aren’t in Church, we are walking in sin and opposition to the Word of God.

As you walk away from this devotion, I want to challenge you: Do you feel yourself growing cold? If so, as Christ followers we can confess and turn from our sin (see 1 John 1:9). May God give you grace and strength to recognize the condition of your heart and the times in which we live. Know that today my prayer is that God would bless, strengthen, and convict each of us so we can continue walking in Christ love and power as a beautiful testimony to a world that desperately needs the hope that only Jesus can give.

By Daniel Higginbotham, ago