Just a Minute
Just a Minute is a collection of brief but meaningful meditations on Scripture. BJU Press has published a book by the same name with 96 of these devotional articles. Each chapter focuses on a Scripture verse or two, blending key facts about context with meditations on the truth of the passage. Find out how taking just a minute each day can change your life!
If you are interested, you can purchase Just A Minute, containing the first 96 printed articles.
Beyond Expectations (Just A Minute #114)
But think on me when it shall be well with thee, and shew kindness, I pray thee, unto me, and make mention of me unto Pharaoh, and bring me out of this house: (Genesis 40:14)
We rarely have any idea of how much God is actually doing for us.
Jacob’s favorite son had been thrown into an Egyptian prison for something he didn’t do. In that humiliating place he amazingly retained a firm trust in Jehovah, who many years before had made him a promise through a series of dreams.
Gratitude's Reward (Just A Minute #113)
And one of them, when he saw that he was healed, turned back, and with a loud voice glorified God, and fell down on his face at his feet, giving him thanks: and he was a Samaritan. . . . And he said unto him, Arise, go thy way: thy faith hath made thee whole. (Luke 17:16 &19)
The text seems to say that he made a U-turn as soon as he noticed his skin was new. If so, the gratitude in his heart was such a powerful force that it moved him to go against the rest.
They had all started their day in the same way . . . ten men with a deadly disease. They had all been at the edge of the village when Jesus came into sight. Together they heard His odd command to present themselves to the priests and as one they started walking towards Jerusalem.
An Embarrassing Moment (Just A Minute #112)
Then Jezebel sent a messenger unto Elijah, saying, So let the gods do to me, and more also, if I make not thy life as the life of one of them by to morrow about this time. And when he saw that, he arose, and went for his life, and came to Beersheba, which belongeth to Judah, and left his servant there. (1 Kings 19:2-3)
Don’t you think Elijah would have preferred God not include this incident in the book of Kings?!
It was embarrassing by almost anybody’s standards, especially if you look at the context.
A Whirlwind of Counsel (Just A Minute #111)
Then the LORD answered Job out of the whirlwind, and said, Who is this that darkeneth counsel by words without knowledge? Gird up now thy loins like a man; for I will demand of thee, and answer thou me. (Job 38:1-3)
That sure seems like a strange way to address a man who is in intense suffering.
Usually the advice we hear for dealing with hurting people encourages tenderness and sympathy. We can all envision the hospital visitor who is loud and obnoxious or the nervous friend who doesn't quite know what to say and ends up giving poor advice, speaking nonsense, or parroting hollow clichés. Now none of this inappropriate behavior can remotely be attributed to the Wonderful Counselor. However, I do think we would all have expected God to treat Job more delicately.
But He didn't.
Just A Man (Just A Minute #110)
As the LORD God of Israel liveth, before whom I stand, there shall not be dew nor rain these years, but according to my word. (1 Kings 17:1)
Elias was a man subject to like passions as we are, and he prayed earnestly that it might not rain: and it rained not on the earth by the space of three years and six months. (James 5:17)
If all we knew about Elijah came from the passages in 1 & 2 Kings we could easily come to some wrong conclusions. One of those would probably be that his power in prayer is way out of our reach.
Few prophets in the Bible come close to having as many recorded answers to prayer as this rough preacher from Gilead. His unusual level of confidence in God's will often expressed itself in persistent prayers . . . with miraculous results. At other times one prayer is all it took for a remarkable divine response.