Daily Devotions

When we walk with the Lord in the light of His Word,
What a glory He sheds on our way!
While we do His good will, He abides with us still,
And with all who will trust and obey.

Trust and obey, for there’s no other way
To be happy in Jesus, but to trust and obey.

Not a shadow can rise, not a cloud in the skies,
But His smile quickly drives it away;
Not a doubt or a fear, not a sigh or a tear,
Can abide while we trust and obey.

Trust and obey, for there’s no other way
To be happy in Jesus, but to trust and obey.

Then in fellowship sweet we will sit at His feet.
Or we’ll walk by His side in the way.
What He says we will do, where He sends we will go;
Never fear, only trust and obey.

Trust and obey, for there’s no other way
To be happy in Jesus, but to trust and obey.

Sometime in my childhood? Sometime after that? I have no idea where and when I first sang this song. But it got inside of me. Even before I truly entrusted my life to Jesus, that song was there. It still sings within me.

I quit writing these Daily Devotions back in July. Sometimes things just jolt me. They leave me flabbergasted. Sometimes my daily rituals change. And when that happens, I can’t write Daily Devotions anymore. Or better, I re-enter a season where “obey” doesn’t include writing every morning.

And then something happens.

This time that “something” is a Facebook reply from a guy I drew up with back in Wahpeton. I met Kraig in kindergarten. The first time I ever saw a color television in anyone’s home was a Saturday morning at Kraig’s. His mom was our den mother when I tried to be a Cub Scout. (I’m still jealous that Lane Wateland got to be Abraham Lincoln and I was a slave in paper chains with a charcoal black face in our skit at Bethel Lutheran Church.)

Kraig and I don’t see the world in the same way. Grew up in the same town. Same school. Same teachers. At least through grade school, same friends. So how is it that we see things so differently?

Maybe it is life experience. His home life was very different than mine. Sports became my life; Kraig’s life went a different direction. And, that one day in the summer after my first year in college, I gave my life to God (as best as I could understand the concept way back then) and everything changed for me. I trust that Kraig is on his own spiritual journey. Maybe it is that.

Trust and obey, there’s no better way.

I love Paul’s vulnerability with the Corinthians in 1 Cor. 15:10, “But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace toward me has not been in vain. On the contrary, I worked harder than any of them—though it was not I, but the grace of God that is with me.”

I’m not saying that I work harder than anyone else – there is no way that is true – but I do pray that God’s grace toward me has not been in vain.

So today marks a new chapter in my life. As I continue to serve God and the community at Faith Lutheran Church, as what I do spreads through social media, I will trust and obey that it is time for me to write in the mornings again.

You may or may not like that. You may or may not like or agree with something I write. I’m not in charge of that. My work is to pass on what I see and hear in the connections between the Word and our lives that day. Feel free to post any replies you wish.

As this new chapter begins, I am confident that God’s Word will continue to be both a comfort and a challenge as it guides us through life. It will continue to be the two-edged sword it has always been.

Thank you, Kraig, for inviting me to do what it is that I sense God calling me to do. Trust and obey, there’s no better way.

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