DAILY DEVOTIONAL – February 1, 2021
“Approved”
Prayer: Our God and Father, guard our hearts against vanity and selfishness. Keep us ever focused on living a life that pleases You alone, for You are our only happiness and worth. In Jesus’ Name. Amen.
Scripture: Proverbs 29:25
“Fearing people is a dangerous trap, but trusting the Lord means safety.”
Devotional – “Approved”
In 1976 stuntman Kenny Powers attempted what would have been the longest car jump in history. The jump took place in a small Canadian town called Morrisburg. In between Morrisburg, Canada and the state of New York, runs the St. Lawrence river which is about 1 ¼ miles wide on average. Kenny Powers and his team had been meticulously and carefully planning this jump for over 4 years. Just two years prior, in 1974, the motorcycle stunt man “Evil Knievel” attempted a similar jump over the Snake River in Twin Falls, Idaho, which did not go well. The jump Kenny Powers was attempting was 3xs longer than Evil Knievel’s. Powers and his team had attempted the jump over the St. Lawrence River four times prior, but due to a variety of reasons mainly having to do with weather and equipment malfunctions, Powers was never able to give it a go.
Finally the day had arrived when all the pieces would finally come together and Kenny Powers would be able to do his best to make the longest car jump in history. One million dollars had been spent preparing for this day, with over 110,000 yards of dirt having been excavated in order to build the runway and 10-story tall ramp that Powers would launch off of in his rocket-powered Lincoln Continental. Rescue crews were on stand-by all around. The countdown was given and Powers accelerated from 0mph to 280mph in a matter of seconds. At the end of the ramp, Powers experienced 30 times the force of gravity as his car went nose up and the rocket propelled him 300ft in the air almost instantaneously. If you watch the video of this jump (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AeTzfsDa6EU), the car looks incredibly stable going up the ramp, but as soon as it is airborne you can tell things were not going to end well. The forces involved in this jump proved too much for the car and it literally unraveled in mid-air. The emergency parachutes deployed, with one of them not opening up fully, resulting in Kenny and his car slamming into the St. Lawrence River.
The rescue teams jumped into action. As they approached the mangled car they could see that Powers was alive and alert enough to be attempting to release himself from his harness, but as they pulled him out and onto shore it became apparent that Kenny had broken his back; something he had done 7 times before. While being transported to the ambulance and fading in and out of consciousness, the only thing Powers kept saying was, “Did I make it? Is everybody pleased?”
I have always wondered what would compel someone to attempt such heinous and extremely dangerous stunts like this. I think our Proverb for today answers that question; “Fearing people is a dangerous trap, but trusting the Lord means safety.” Or, as Kenny Powers himself said while laying on a spinal board while being transported into and ambulance (again…), “Is everybody pleased?”
Most of us don’t put our physical bodies at risk like Kenny Powers or Evil Knieval in an attempt to gain the approval or applause of other people, however, we no less put our spiritual well-being at risk when we live and make decisions, even small ones, in order to please or gain the approval of others. Most of the time I think people associate being a “people pleaser” with ego and self-esteem, but there are certainly other reasons people desire “everybody to be pleased.” For example, even if you don’t like your boss and don’t really care if he or she approves of you as a person, if you please your boss as your boss, then you get paid and maybe even get a promotion. Sometimes, ego and/or money have nothing to do with why people work so hard and risk so much to please others. Avoiding conflict, trying to make up for something done wrong, trying to win someone over for a vote, confusing earthly success and pleasure with the approval and pleasure of God, or pleasing others now because you want them to do something for you later, are all reasons why we may be tempted to speak or act in such a way that makes us seek out the approval of men rather than our God.
God says in Jeremiah 17:5-7, “Cursed is the man who trusts in man and makes flesh his strength, whose heart turns away from the Lord. Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord, whose trust is the Lord.” The spiritual danger of living or behaving in such a way that makes pleasing other men our biggest priority is that, as Jeremiah said, it turns our heart “away from the Lord.”
If Kenny Powers were driving 80mph instead of 280mph, an electrical shortage or structural failure on his car would probably not prove to be catastrophic. The more you risk, the less it takes to bring disaster. The same is true for our spiritual life and well-being because there is nothing more eternally valuable than our faith in God and His approval of us. Jesus said that sin is like yeast; a little leaven leavens the whole lump (1 Corinthians 5:6).
Our hearts ultimately long to know that God is pleased with us and that when we have to stand before Him at the end of our days and give an account for our life, He will smile upon us and give us His approval. Friends, the only way God will ever be pleased with us, the only way He will ever nod in approval of the life we lived, the things we said, and the things we have done, is if they were done through faith in God’s grace and forgiveness given to us in the blood of Jesus Christ, His Son. As Hebrews 11:6 says, “Without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him.”
Through faith in Christ’s merits and His perfect life lived in our place and His perfect blood shed to cover and cleanse us of sin, even the smallest of works done on earth for the sake of glorifying Christ brings a smile to God’s face. The faith in Christ that is behind a work and the faith that motivates the work of our life for the sake of His glory and not our own, that is what pleases God. Not the size of the work itself or number of accomplishments praised by men. As God’s Word says in 2 Corinthians 10:17-18, “ ‘Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.’ For it is not the one who commends himself who is approved, but the one whom the Lord commends.” When we live by faith alone and live our lives in trusting that Christ has already done for us all that needs to be done to bring a smile to our Heavenly Father’s face, that is what ultimately brings satisfaction and rest to our souls, and the approval of God that we so long for and will in fact receive in Jesus Christ, our Lord.
Thanks for joining me for another daily devotional, and remember, that God has forgiven yesterday, is with you today, and has already taken care of tomorrow. Amen.
