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“Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him that loved us” (Romans 8:37).

When we do anything that is competitive, we all like to win. Also, we like to see those whom we support, win too. I can remember driving by the football stadium one Lord’s day afternoon, in the city where I grew up. The home team in our city had just lost the game to another visiting team, and many of the local fans were not happy. I saw one man walking along the sidewalk who was so upset that he was kicking every parked car he passed, just to work out his frustrations. But how can we be more than conquerors? After all, if we win, we win. How can we do more than win?

Perhaps we can use an illustration. Back in the days of sailing ships, they sometimes encountered severe storms. Then they had to take in the sails, and just let the wind carry them wherever it blew. Then, after the storm was over, they would get things back together, check their position, and try to get back on course. If they got through the storm and had no damage to the ship, they would say they had conquered. They had made it through the storm.

But suppose that after the storm, when they checked their position, they found that instead of blowing them off course, the storm had driven them right on course, and that they were much closer to their destination than if the weather had been nice. Instead of working against them, the storm had worked for them! That would be a case of being more than a conqueror.

It is often that way in our lives. The storms the Lord allows in our Christian pathway do not blow us off course. They are working for us, not against us, and through those storms we learn lessons we could not learn any other way. Also, we learn the Lord’s care of us, and how He can protect us. We could not learn that kind of thing in heaven, for there will be no storms up there. We have to learn all that down here, but we will have the memory of it for all eternity.

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“I have learned, in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content” (Philippians 4:11).

The Apostle Paul had many different experiences in his life. Some of them were rather difficult, and others were very pleasant. You can read about some of those difficult experiences in 2 Corinthians, at the end of chapter 11. But Paul had learned to be content in whatever state he found himself.

Notice that he says he had “learned” to be content. Paul was no different naturally than any of the rest of us. He did not naturally like hard circumstances; he would have liked everything to go smoothly for him. But that is not the way we learn things in our Christian life. Paul had to learn to be content in whatever situation he was, and so do we.

How could Paul be content in difficult circumstances? It was because he knew that the Lord had placed him in that situation, and that the Lord had a purpose in doing it. He knew that he had something to learn wherever the Lord placed him, and perhaps the Lord also had something for him to do there. Most important, he knew that wherever he was, the Lord was with him, and would give him the strength to do what He had for him to do there. We learn far more in difficult situations than we do when things are going smoothly for us.

Although it is not the main meaning of this verse, we can also use it to speak about how the Lord has made us. He has given us our bodies, our brains, our abilities, and our spiritual gifts. Sometimes perhaps we look at others, and wish we had the abilities or gifts that they have. But just as the human body is made up of many different parts, so believers do not all have the same abilities. As we saw with John the Baptist, the important thing is to use what the Lord has given us, where He wants us to use it. That is what pleases Him.

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“John did no miracle: but all things that John spake of this Man were true” (John 10:41).

We saw yesterday that John the Baptist was given a high honor by the Lord Jesus, because he was willing to be where the Lord wanted him, and he did what the Lord gave him to do. However, as I mentioned at the end of yesterday’s meditation, there was one other important reason why the Lord Jesus commended John so highly.

In our verse today, the people commented that John had not done any miracle. God could have given John the Baptist the power to do miracles, but He left that for the Lord Jesus to do. As the Messiah, it was His place to perform those miracles, to prove who He was. But the people also commented that everything that John had said about the Lord Jesus was true. At first this might seem like something very simple to us, but there is a deeper meaning to those words.

John the Baptist never talked about himself, or boasted about who he was, and the work he was doing. When the people asked him who he was, he said, “I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness, Make straight the way of the Lord” (John 1:23). But John always said a lot about the Lord Jesus, and who He was. He told the people to get ready for Him, as the rightful King of Israel. He could say in John 3:30, “He [the Lord Jesus] must increase, but I must decrease.” It was also for this reason that the Lord commended John the Baptist

It is rather sad that some people who want to serve the Lord want to be given credit for it, and want to have a place of honor. I have some Christian friends that, whenever I talk to them, within five minutes want to tell me how much they are doing for the Lord. However, you and I know that the only One who is worthy to be honored is the Lord Jesus. John the Baptist understood this, and always talked about the Lord Jesus, not about himself. The people recognized this, and it caused many to believe on the Lord Jesus. That is the way it should be in our lives.

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“Among them that are born of women there hath not risen a greater than John the Baptist” (Matthew 11:11).

Our verse today is somewhat connected with what we said yesterday. John the Baptist was a relatively young man when he was called to serve the Lord, and he probably began when he was only in his twenties. He also lived a very simple life, for the Bible records that he wore clothes made out of camels’ hair, and ate a diet of locusts (big grasshoppers) and wild honey. Clothes made out of camels’ hair did not likely feel that comfortable next to his skin, and to eat locusts … well, most of you would probably say, “Yuck!” Also, he lived out in desert areas; he did not live in a nice house.

However, there was something very important about John the Baptist, and for this reason the Lord says that no other prophet was greater than he was. Why was this? It was because John was in the place where the Lord placed him, and did exactly what the Lord told him to do. It is not how much we do that counts, but rather whether we do the Lord’s will, in the place where He wants us.

There had been many great prophets and great men in the Old Testament. Some of them had lived long lives, such as Noah, Abraham, Joseph, and Moses, to name a few. But John the Baptist lived a relatively short life, for he was beheaded as a young man, not likely more than thirty-one years of age. Yet the Lord gives him the highest honor He could give, because He did what He was asked to do. His work for the Lord was finished when he was quite young.

This is important for us to learn. It is not how long a life we live, or how much we do for the Lord. What is important is to be where He places us, and to do what He gives us to do. There is one more reason why the Lord commended John the Baptist so highly, but we will leave that for tomorrow.

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“But, holding the truth in love, we may grow up to Him in all things, who is the Head, the Christ” (Ephesians 4:15 JND).

It is a wonderful experience to watch things grow, whether in a natural way, or a spiritual way. I grew up on a farm, and always enjoyed watching fruit trees and other farm plants grow. We all love to see children grow too, and mature in the right way.

The Lord wants us to grow too, in a spiritual way, and encourages this in His Word. But sometimes we may feel that we are not growing the way we should, and I have known a number of young people who felt that if only they lived somewhere else, or were connected with a different group of Christians, they would grow better. However, sometimes the Lord allows us to be placed where naturally we would not like to be. Let me tell you a story.

I grew up in southern Ontario, Canada, near the city of Hamilton. Hamilton always was, and still is, mainly an industrial city, but the land around it is some of the best farmland for growing fruit in all of Canada. The land below the so-called Niagara escarpment is sandy and easy to work with, but that on top of the escarpment is hard. I had a good friend who was much older than I (he was born in 1882!), and who owned a fruit farm on the escarpment. One day a fruit inspector came from the Ontario government, to look at his fruit. My friend saw a basket of beautiful big peaches in the back of his car, which he had gotten from a farm below the escarpment. My friend was embarrassed to show the inspector his peaches because they were so much smaller. But the inspector picked up one of his peaches and bit into it. His face lit up, and he exclaimed, “What wonderful flavor! Could I have some of them?”

My friend was surprised, and remarked that the inspector already had much bigger and nicer looking peaches from below the escarpment. But the inspector said, “Yes, they look beautiful, but they don’t taste nearly as good as yours!” As an inspector, he knew that good ground would grow nice looking fruit, but that the best flavor is often found in fruit grown on hard ground.

It is often the same in our lives. The Lord may allow us to grow up to Him in difficult conditions, but that kind of ground often produces the best fruit in our lives. Let us not complain about our situation, or wish we were somewhere else. We can produce fruit wherever we are, and even in what we feel is hard ground. (If you do not understand what the Niagara escarpment is, look it up on the internet. I do not have space to explain it here.)

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“The people came to Moses, and said, We have sinned … pray unto the Lord, that He take away the serpents from us. And Moses prayed for the people … And the Lord said unto Moses, Make thee a fiery serpent, and set it upon a pole … and it came to pass, that if a serpent had bitten any man, when he beheld the serpent of brass, he lived” (Numbers 21:7-9).

Eventually the people realized that they had sinned in complaining about their good food, and in speaking against the Lord, and against Moses. They asked Moses to pray to the Lord, so that He would take away those awful serpents. Perhaps some of us are praying that way too, and asking the Lord to take away this Covid virus. But we see that Moses did not pray this way; it simply says that he “prayed for the people.” Moses realized that there was a deeper problem, and so he prayed for the people.

When Moses prayed, the Lord did not take away the serpents. They were still there, and still biting people. They needed to be reminded of the seriousness of what they had done in speaking against the Lord, and against Moses. But the Lord did something else, and you probably know the story well. The Lord told Moses to make a serpent of brass, and put it on a pole. Whenever someone had been bitten by a serpent, he had only to look at the serpent on the pole, and he would live.

You and I might have thought that having to look at a brass serpent was the last thing that people would want to do, if they had been bitten by a serpent. They would hate the sight of it! Yet that was the only way to be healed. All this has two good lessons for us.

First of all, the serpent of brass is a picture of the Lord Jesus, and we see this in John’s gospel. See if you can find the verse in John that mentions this serpent of brass. It is a picture of the Lord Jesus bearing our sins, so that we do not have to bear the punishment for them. The Lord wanted the children of Israel to realize that He could not forgive their sins, unless someone bore the punishment for them.

But there is another lesson for us here too. The Lord wanted the children of Israel to think about all that God had done for them, and all His power. If you remember, it was their own fault that they had to wander in the wilderness for forty years, for they had rebelled against the Lord, and refused to go into the land of Canaan. Also, they had learned lessons in the wilderness that they could not learn any other way. Now once again they were having to learn a lesson, and to see how the Lord could deliver them from the bite of the serpents.

It is the same for us in this Covid problem. The Lord has allowed it so that we all learn something. Also, He is going to bring us through it!

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“And the soul of the people was much discouraged because of the way” (Numbers 21:4).

“And the people spake against God, and against Moses … and the Lord sent fiery serpents among the people … and much people of Israel died” (Numbers 21:5-6).

Covid, covid, covid! We are all getting tired of it, and yet the problem seems to go on and on. It is a big nuisance to have to stand at a distance from other people, and wear masks much of the time. As I write this at the end of 2021, the Omicron variant is spreading rapidly, and although its infection is not as serious as some of the previous ones, yet it is causing a lot of difficulty. Travel plans are being disrupted, supply chains of various things are being interrupted, and more restrictions are being placed on social gatherings. We all wish it would be over and done with!

In our first verse today, we find that the children of Israel became discouraged too. They had been wandering in the desert for about 38 years at this time, and were just about ready to enter the land of Canaan. But they found the going rather hard, and started to blame God, and Moses too. They had eaten manna for all those years, and God had never failed to supply it for them, but now they complained about it. They called it “light bread” and said that they loathed it. That means that they despised it, and hated it.

It was all right for them to be tired of going through the wilderness, but it was wrong for them to complain about the good food the Lord gave them, and it was wrong to speak against the Lord and against Moses, the leader whom God had given them. The Lord then sent fiery serpents to bite them, and many people died.

For the same reason it is all right for us to get tired of things like the Covid pandemic, but it is wrong to complain about it, and to blame the Lord for allowing it. The Lord has a purpose in it all, and He tests us, to see if we will trust Him to bring us through it. He is using things like the Covid pandemic to make this world realize that judgment is coming, and to draw people to Christ to be saved. If we complain about it, the Lord may have to allow difficulties in our lives too, just as He did for the Israelites. Let us remember that the Lord allows our circumstances in this world, and we can trust Him to look after us. We will speak a little more about this tomorrow.

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“Where your treasure is, there will your heart be also” (Luke 12:34).

“And they shall be Mine, saith the Lord of hosts, in that day when I make up My jewels” (Malachi 3:17).

Some years ago now, we visited the Tower of London in London, England. It is a very old castle that dates back to the 11th century, and was built by William the Conqueror. It has served the royal family in a number of ways, and was perhaps best known as a prison for the rich and famous. It also houses what are known as the crown jewels, which are fabulously expensive precious stones that have been accumulated over the years. As you may imagine, they are very carefully guarded, so that no one will steal them.

Do you think that the queen constantly thinks about those jewels? I doubt it. They are precious, of course, and she would surely be upset if some of them were stolen. But other things are probably much more on her mind and heart. Her heart is not likely in the Tower of London.

In the Bible, the word treasure is often used in a general sense, to mean what we really value. We all realize the truth of our first verse today, that where our treasure is, there will our heart be. For example, if one member of a family must go overseas, perhaps to serve in the army, we can appreciate that the hearts of that family are also overseas, wondering if their family member is all right.

We are reminded in our second verse today that we are the Lord’s treasures, or jewels. We belong to Him, and He is going to display us someday as that which He really values. Perhaps you have sung the Sunday school song, “When He cometh, when He cometh, to make up His jewels.” The author of that hymn got the thought from this verse.

But where is our treasure? If we realize that we belong to heaven, our hearts will be up there. But if our treasures are in this world, our hearts will be down here. We need to ask ourselves, Where is our treasure? If it is up in heaven, no one can steal it, nor can we lose it any other way.

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“A broken and a contrite [repentant] heart, O God, Thou wilt not despise” (Psalm 51:17).

“He healeth the broken in heart, and bindeth up their wounds” (Psalm 147:3).

How many of you have broken something that you really liked, or perhaps worse still, broken something that someone else really liked? It is a terrible feeling to have your Mom’s favorite mug go crashing to the floor, or to rip a big hole in your favorite sweater. Most often after an accident like this, the broken object is useless.

In today’s verses we are not talking about “things,” but you, and your spirit and feelings. Maybe you feel you have really failed the Lord in something you have done or said. Perhaps just an angry word that really hurt someone else. You may think that you cannot pick up and keep going because this happens so often that you will never be any use as a Christian.

Do you know that the Lord says that often He can make better use of something that has been broken and mended than one that is still in perfect condition? If you broke the handle off a special mug, even if it were carefully mended, I am sure every time afterwards when it was picked up, the user would be very careful, as you would know its weak spot. It is like that with us as Christians. If we have failed and come to the Lord and confessed our mistakes, the Lord values that. We will not be proud of how we can manage on our own after a fall, and will be much more likely to ask the Lord for His continual help when we feel our weakness.

You will remember the story of Gideon in Judges 7. The 300 men that were left with Gideon to help him fight had pitchers with lamps inside. When the battle cry was shouted out, the men were to break the pitchers, and then the lamps would shine out. It would not have been very good if some of the men had thought, “Why should we waste these good pitchers by just breaking them?” No, the light could not shine unless the pitcher was smashed. In the same way, we may shine as a brighter light for the Lord if He has broken us in some way. That means that the Lord has been allowed to crush our proud thoughts, or humble us in some way so we can be more useful to Him.

We have all heard the expression “breaking in a horse.” This training teaches the horse who is master, and how he must behave in order to be useful. We took our golden retriever dog to obedience school when he was a puppy. I do not think he liked some of the things he was made to do, but he came out of the training a loving and obedient dog that was a pleasure to have around the home. It also gave the dog much more freedom, as we could take him out without using a leash. He would obey word commands without a leash.

Our second verse is very comforting if we find ourselves being “broken in” in some way. The Lord also loves to bind up and heal us. He does not leave us broken! Always remember how very much He loves you.

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“Now there was at Joppa a certain disciple named … .” (Acts 9:36).

I left today’s verse unfinished for a reason. I imagine as you were reading along, you would have expected the next word to be a name like Peter, or James. But instead the name is Tabitha … a woman! Yes, you young girls can be disciples and we see a lovely example in this lady named Tabitha.

The story goes on to tell us that she was “full of good works and almsdeeds” (that is doing good things for the poor). But she died. All those whom she had helped were very sad and were showing the clothes she had sewn for them. Can’t you just picture the room, as Tabitha’s body was lying still on a bed, and those around all crying and holding up little jackets and sweaters and telling how kind Tabitha had been to them?

The other disciples in that area went to a nearby city where Peter was preaching and brought him to Joppa. By the Lord’s power he raised Tabitha to life again from her deathbed. Verse 42 then tells us that this was known all over Joppa, and that “many believed in the Lord.” Did we read anything that tells us that Tabitha preached a sermon? No, she brought many to know the Lord through her loving, kind and “Christ-like” acts, and through her death and being raised up again by the power of God through Peter. And so, young girls, we want to encourage you to reach out in kindness to those around you. Look around and ask the Lord where you might be able to show out His love through something you can do. That opens the door also to telling them about your special Friend, the Lord Jesus.

This doesn’t need to apply only to girls! There are many things you young boys can do as well. It all starts at home, and being helpful there is the way to begin before branching out beyond your home. And here is another point to think about. When it comes time for you to look around and wonder whom the Lord might have you to choose as your partner in life, look for someone who loves the Lord and loves to serve others.

Proverbs 31:30 tells us, “Favor is deceitful, and beauty is vain: but a woman that feareth the Lord, she shall be praised.”

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