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Comfort in this understanding

11 Apr

Comfort in this understanding

Psalm 23:1 A Psalm of David. The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want. 2 He makes me to lie down in green pastures; He leads me beside the still waters. 3 He restores my soul; He leads me in the paths of righteousness For His name’s sake. 4 Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil; For You are with me; Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me. 5 You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies; You anoint my head with oil; My cup runs over. 6 Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me All the days of my life; And I will dwell in the house of the Lord Forever.

It has been a rough couple days. A cold/flu/allergy bug jumped on me, and the worst of it was robbed me of sleep. Last night was the closest I came to restful sleep since Sunday. I have been in a walking zombie state the last 72 hours. I have spent time with God in the middle of the night; I have had God speak to me, but my brain and hands were not connected to write. It was Tuesday night He brought to remembrance Psalm 23. This is a Psalm of comfort, a Psalm where the writer David pens from his personal experience. The concept of shepherds and their sheep were understood in that time. The shepherd was the sole person responsible for everything that was provided and guarded for his sheep. The Lord is known in that sense to those of us under His care also.

The writer of Hebrews reminds us of this promise; Hebrews 13:5 Let your conduct be without covetousness; be content with such things as you have. For He Himself has said, “I will never leave you nor forsake you.” 6 So we may boldly say: “The Lord is my helper; I will not fear. What can man do to me?” The writer was speaking directly to our love of money in this context, but also wanting us to understand how to trust God for more than it also. Our love and understanding of His provision should be much deeper than the financial scale. In the current state of my life, I can see God speaking to me directly regarding this limitation I have put on Him. Our Lord is our provider of everything that comes to us, surrounds us, and is kept from us. There may be those hard things that He allows just close enough, to grow our understanding, but also just far enough out of reach to protect us.

Paul speaks of this comfort from God; this comfort that the world seeks, but only finds in Him. 2 Corinthians 1:3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, 4 who comforts us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort those who are in any trouble, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God. The troubles of the world can come at you in countless ways, but these troubles of the world are not from a heavenly God. In Him is all you need to face all you have before you today. In Him is the understanding that it is temporal, and you serve and will rest with Him eternally. You will possess what others seek, and in that trial you are able to share the love of Christ, and the peace of Christ that they may possess also.

 
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Posted by on April 11, 2013 in Daily Devotions

 

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Speaking out

05 Apr

Speaking out

Luke 22:15-16   And he said to them, “I have eagerly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer. For I tell you, I will not eat it again until it finds fulfillment in the kingdom of God.”

It is your last day; what would you do? Would you think only of yourself and all the things you had not done, or would you think of those you were leaving behind? Hopefully selfishness would abandon and you would seek to spend time with those closest to you reflecting and encouraging them. Christ had entered Jerusalem and was having His last meal with those closest to Him. He was speaking words of encouragement that would last a lifetime and mold them into what God had planned for their lives. His Last Supper was a model of a servant’s heart, and an example of how they were to conduct themselves. What words would you share to last a lifetime for those closest to you in your last days? Christ places in you the ability to share those impacting words that will last someone their lifetime through the Holy Spirit.

John 16:7 Nevertheless I tell you the truth. It is to your advantage that I go away; for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you; but if I depart, I will send Him to you. Christ came and died to rescue us all from eternal punishment of our sin. When He died on the cross, arose and returned to Heaven, He provided us a way through Salvation the greatest gift; to dwell inside us as believers in Him. The Holy Spirit is the heartbeat of Christ living inside you, and you can be the encouraging words of Christ to someone near you in what may be unknowingly their last days. Romans 10:17 So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God. If you proclaim Christ, share Christ, and live the day as if it is your last leading others to Him for the joy they may possess. He heart is beating inside you directing you to share Him with those around you so that all the world may hear. This Holy week brings about ears that are inclined to hear, but how will they hear if you silence His heartbeat inside of you? Share Him with someone near you today to encourage them for eternity.

 
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Posted by on April 5, 2012 in Daily Devotions

 

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Tired or Weary?

30 Mar

Tired or Weary?

Galatians 6:9-10 And let us not grow weary while doing good, for in due season we shall reap if we do not lose heart. Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all, especially to those who are of the household of faith.

We all become tired, and a synonym for tired is weary, but it seems as though weary has a much heavier meaning. Weary to me leans towards exhaustion, and exhaustion can lead to failure. We must charge ourselves to not slip from simply tired into the failure of weariness. Weariness can come through the tribulations that are confronting us, and the drag they put upon us. We must forsake them to God whom will shoulder our burden and make it light. Matthew 11:28 Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. The load that we carry can be shouldered by God, and giving Him our worries through prayer and seeking His guidance.

I love how Isaiah puts it in verse 50:4 The Lord God has given Me The tongue of the learned, That I should know how to speak A word in season to him who is weary. He awakens Me morning by morning, He awakens My ear To hear as the learned. Isaiah awoke every morning by Gods grace, and he sought Him for the recharging of himself, so that he could encourage others to draw near to Christ. That is how I feel out here every day in my quiet time alone with God, recharging my soul, and the product of that is encouraging you for the same. The large trials of life will make us weary, exhausted, but through the strength He provides we can press on to encourage others in their times of need. Do you think what you are facing is without purpose? God can use where you are today to draw you closer to Him, and possibly others will be drawn also seeing His Glory shine through you.

I must include this commentary by Matthew Henry:

Those that would hear as the learned must be awake, and wakeful; for we are naturally drowsy and sleepy, and unapt to hear at all, or we hear by the halves, hear and do not heed. Our ears need to be wakened; we need to have something said to rouse us, to awaken us out of our spiritual slumbers, that we may hear as for our lives. We need to be awakened morning by morning, as duly as the day returns, to be awakened to do the work of the day in its day. Our case calls for continual fresh supplies of divine grace, to free us from the dulness we contract daily. The morning, when our spirits are most lively, is a proper time for communion with God; then we are in the best frame both to speak to him (my voice shalt thou hear in the morning) and to hear from him. The people came early in the morning to hear Christ in the temple (Lu. 21:38 ), for, it seems, his were morning lectures. And it is God that wakens us morning by morning. If we do any thing to purpose in his service, it is he who, as our Master, calls us up; and we should doze perpetually if he did not waken us morning by morning

 
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Posted by on March 30, 2012 in Daily Devotions

 

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Early morning sunshine

22 Mar

Early morning sunshine

Romans 5:5     Now hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us.

Why do you even bother to get out of bed? Is it the drudgery of the tasks that lie in the day ahead, or is it the hope that lies within you to arise and see where Christ will have you today? The attitude when your feet hit the floor can follow you all day. Hope is an underlayment on our awakening and our actions throughout our lives. “You are what you believe” a close friend once told me. The hope that lies within us upon Salvation is the Holy Spirit whom brings light to truth, wisdom to our hearts, and joy in our souls. I love how Hebrews 6:19 puts it; “This hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast,.” That anchor that rests in you provides the peace and security to face the dawn of a new day.

Hope is the expectation of eternal that God has placed in us by His design. We all undeniably have that longing for life after this; it is the way we are all wired. That desire is hope, and the hope grows deeper upon hearing of the Good News. Colossians 1:5 because of the hope which is laid up for you in heaven, of which you heard before in the word of the truth of the gospel. Unfortunately the world preaches hope as monetary possessions and pleasures of temporary satisfactions. We all have seen the last few years how temporal they can be. Hope is eternal, is steadfast, and is the reason you have been given the power to face a new day. With the hope of a life in paradise with Christ, what can fall before you today that could be so temporal to waive the power of eternal? Awake tomorrow with a smile and a hope to face the day; “always be ready to give a defense to everyone who asks you a reason for the hope that is in you, with meekness and fear.”

 
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Posted by on March 22, 2012 in Daily Devotions

 

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Moanin’ and Groanin’

21 Mar

Moanin’ and Groanin’

2 Corinthians 5:1-2  For we know that if our earthly house, this tent, is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. For in this we groan, earnestly desiring to be clothed with our habitation which is from heaven,

The older I get, the more my body hurts. My working hard and playing harder are catching up to me sooner than I expected. My physical body has taken it’s toll, and my mind troubles me consistently as a result of bad decisions and more than likely genetics too. I could easily fill this devo with my list of “groans.” But the deepest groan comes from within, the longing for that eternity in paradise. When you begin to search the scriptures and see the promises of God for what He has prepared for you, for eternity, how can the Spirit inside you not long to go home? The closer you draw to Him, the peace and desire of that security swell. Romans 8:23  Not only that, but we also who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, when we ourselves groan within ourselves, eagerly waiting for the adoption, the redemption of our body.

We deal with many types of afflictions for our short time here. They may come as physical, emotional, or just the strains of daily life. They all pass through God’s filter, and they all can draw you closer to Him, and glorify Him as a result of whatever you are facing today. 4:17 For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, is working for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory. Matthew Henry speaks of the apostles and “whereupon they weighed things aright in the balance of the sanctuary; they did as it were put the heavenly glory in one scale and their earthly sufferings in the other; and, pondering things in their thoughts, they found afflictions to be light, and the glory of heaven to be a far more exceeding weight.” Whatever you find yourself facing today, give it to God, give the glory to God, and rest in the assurance that it is only for a short time, to prepare you for eternity.

 
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Posted by on March 21, 2012 in Daily Devotions

 

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