Erik Nieder Devotionals
Faithful
Psalm 139, 2 Timothy 2:13 , Luke 15:11-31
Sometimes I feel like I relate to the psalmist David a little more than I’d like to admit. Read through more than a couple of Psalms, and I think you’ll see what I mean.
David experiences sweet and intimate worship unto the Lord, beautiful moments of triumph.
“How precious to me are your thoughts, God! How vast is the sum of them!” (Psalm 139:17).
And then — in seemingly an instant — we find him pleading with the Lord to
“Slay the wicked! Away from me you who are bloodthirsty!” (Psalm 139:19).
Time and again David takes us on these emotional rollercoasters (after all, he was an artist ). But if I’m being honest, all too often I do the same thing. The war for the emotions of my heart and the thoughts of my mind wages a daily battle.
And I don’t always win it.
David has an insightful and encouraging take on this in Psalm 139:1-4 —
“You have searched me, Lord, and you know me. You know when I sit and when I rise; you perceive my thoughts from afar. You discern my going out and my lying down; you are familiar with all my ways. Before a word is on my tongue you, Lord, know it completely.”
Don’t miss that truth.
He knows you. All of you. The good, bad, the ugly. He knows your every thought. That one that just popped into your head — He already knows it! Before a word is on your tongue, He’s already heard you speak it. He is familiar with ALL of your ways.
That is amazing.
And it’s terrifying! My anxious heart dwells on many thoughts I’d often rather not share. But He knows it all. And He is still faithful.
In verses 7-10 David goes on to ask —
“Where can I go from your Spirit? Where can I flee from your presence? If I go up to the heavens, you are there; if I make my bed in the depths, you are there. If I rise on the wings of the dawn, if I settle on the far side of the sea, even there your hand will guide me, your right hand will hold me fast.”
Bottom line, there is nowhere we can outrun the presence, the mercy, the love, and the grace of our Savior.
Nowhere.
2 Timothy 2:13 declares that “If we are faithless, He remains faithful, for He cannot deny Himself.”
He cannot deny the finished work of the cross. And just as the prodigal son, in Luke 15, came to his senses and ran back to his father, the moment we turn to God, we realize we’re no further from home than we’ve ever been. Better yet, we find He is chasing after us with arms open wide, ready to meet me us right where are.
He didn’t die for a better, more cleaned up version of you or me. He died for the sinners that we are (Romans 5:8).
So rest in this truth today. There is no amount of faithlessness that can trump His faithfulness. He loves you just as you are, because He is faithful.
Miracle Maker
John 11:25-26, John 17:3, Luke 19:10, Romans 8:37-39
Have you ever felt like you were facing the impossible?
Maybe you’re in a situation even now wondering —
“how could God ever bring something good out of this?” Well, take courage because you are not alone!
Think about Moses and hundreds of thousands (possibly even millions) of Israelites, suddenly interrupted by the Red Sea while fleeing for their lives from the army of a crazed Pharaoh.
Or the blind beggar at the side of the road as Jesus entered Jericho.
Or how about Mary and Martha, swallowed up in grief at the reality that Jesus had not yet made it to them, and their brother Lazarus’ lifeless body now lay in the grave.
From the parting of the Red Sea to Lazarus walking out of his own grave, the Bible is packed with story after story of miracles. Fast forward to today, and the Lord is still working awesome wonders in our midst — marriages restored, prodigals returning home, illnesses inexplicably healed.
Even my own daughter, who was born this past year with club feet, is already attempting to walk with all her 10-month-old might, thanks to the grace of God that we have experienced through her wonderful doctors at Scottish Rite Hospital. She is literally a walking miracle!
But more important than all these miracles — past, present, and personal — is the greatest miracle of all that was on full display at the Cross and sealed by an empty tomb.
You see, Jesus used the miraculous and the inexplicable to ultimately reveal that He was everything He said He was — the Savior of the world. Luke 19:10 says that the “Son of Man has come to seek and save that which was lost.”
He is the Messiah,
the King of Kings,
and Lord of Lords,
and though He had absolutely nothing to prove, He used miracles as a means to draw others unto Himself where they could find freedom from the shackles of their own sin. He came not only to heal the temporal, but to save the eternal!
And that exact same reality is true of the wonders we experience today.
But if I’m being brutally honest, I often want the gift more than I want to know the Giver.
I long for peace and freedom from my worry and anxiety, but I don’t always earnestly desire a deeper relationship with the God of Peace.
John 17:3 says “this is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent.”
The ultimate goal of the Christian should not be to merely experience the miracle, but to intimately know the Maker. It is then, and only then, that we truly come alive and free, feasting on the richness of His Grace and Truth.
The Gospel isn’t that you receive Jesus and life automatically gets easier, the Gospel is that you receive Jesus and He really is enough.
So whatever valley you are walking through today, whatever mountain seems to be standing in your way, remember that Scripture promises we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us (Romans 8:37).
And don’t forget that same Spirit that raised Lazarus from the grave is alive in you today, working in your midst. He is the resurrection and the life and everyone who believes in Him will live (eternally) even if he dies (John 11:25-26).
He is faithful, He is able, He has conquered every grave. And just like my little girl who was born with special feet, you too are a walking miracle, because you are living proof of the power and love of your Maker.
Landslide
Hebrews 4:14-16, Romans 6:5-11, Psalm 16:11, Galatians 5:1, John 8:31-36
“Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let’s hold firmly to our confession. For we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but One who has been tempted in all things just as we are, yet without sin. Therefore let’s approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace for help at the time of our need.” Hebrews 4:14-16
Take a minute and read through that passage in Hebrews again.
Meditate on the gravity of what it says: We have a God who stepped down from the Heavens, came here to be with us and to be like us.
He was born an infant (an absolutely helpless tiny human) —and given the earthly name “Jesus.” As He grew up from young child to man, Jesus was tempted in all things just as we are, but He did not sin.
In fact, He humbled Himself and became a servant to others. He can sympathize with even your greatest weakness. He knows what you are feeling, because like a faithful friend, He has been there. And as a loving Father,
He is here with you in this moment as well.
So what does Scripture tell us to do? Are we to approach a throne of judgment with fear? Absolutely not. We are to approach the throne of GRACE with CONFIDENCE. Why? Because Christ came not only as the great high priest, but as the sacrificial lamb to atone for our sin — past, present, and future.
And the price He paid was paid in full.
Consider this reminder in Romans 6 —
“For if we have become united with Him in the likeness of His death, certainly we shall also be in the likeness of His resurrection, knowing this, that our old self was crucified with Him, in order that our body of sin might be done away with, so that we would no longer be slaves to sin ... For the death that He died, He died to sin once for all; but the life that He lives, He lives to God. Even so consider yourselves to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus.” Romans 6:5-6;10,11 10-11
No matter the circumstance or struggle you are facing, no matter the sin in which you find yourself so readily entangled, you can approach the throne of grace with confidence today. You’ve already been forgiven at the foot of the Cross.
And because of His mercy, you were set free from the wages of your own sin and death at that empty tomb.
You no longer need to be enslaved to your sin, not because of anything you have done, but because you are a child, an heir, of the One who has humbled Himself as a servant and already done it all for you.
So choose today to rest in His mercy, immerse in His forgiveness, and rise up the freedom that you already possess. His name is Jesus, and in His presence is fullness of joy.
“One of my greatest joys is seeing the Lord use songs to challenge and encourage hearts for His glory. I was thirteen years old when I wrote my first song. Little did I know, that was the beginning of a journey that I pray will be a part of my story till the Lord calls me home. I am a firm believer that the power of a melody, coupled with the truth of the Gospel, is a force that can be used to change the world.
To be honest, it's not the music that excites me the most. I love the music, but what fuels my soul is the relationship that the music brings. And more importantly, the purpose behind the songs that we sing.”