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The Trust of David

Psalm 27:1
The LORD is my light and my salvation;
 whom shall I fear?
  The LORD is the stronghold of my life;
 of whom shall I be afraid?

Many of the Psalms were written by David.  David was proclaimed by God to be “a man after my own heart; he will do everything I want him to do”.  Because David proved himself to be obedient to the Lord’s calling on his life, sought God in all things and trusted God in all things, God made him king of Israel.

The first we read about David, we see him as a young man who believed God would give him victory over the giant, Goliath, when everyone else cowered in the face of the giant.  The men of the day tried to provide David with their armor to fight the giant.  David refused.  He knew he only needed God on his side.  

The same God that helped David slay Goliath is the God that helps us to slay the giants in our lives.  The giants in our lives are not named Goliath.  They are named such things as fear, worry, depression, confusion, manipulation, control, bitterness and anger.  We do not need to turn to the world to defeat our giants.  We only need to go to Our Heavenly Father in the name of His Son, Jesus.  He will give us the victory, just as He gave David the victory.  He will also give us a kingdom, just as He gave David a kingdom.

Prayer,
Heavenly Father, we thank You for giving us Your Son, whose death on the Cross gave us victory over all things.  We are so grateful that Jesus stands beside us as we face our giants. We pray that You will teach us to trust in You, just as David trusted in You.


Living in Reverent Awe of Almighty God

Philippians 2:12-13
Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, so now, not only as in my presence but much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure.

When Paul wrote to the Philippians, he knew that they were struggling with sin in their lives just as we all are.  He knew that they found it easier “to behave” when they were in his presence, just as we are more on guard in the presence of others.  He exhorted them to be constant in their battle against sin whether He was there or not.  
He was not telling them that they were working to earn their salvation.  He was telling them how to overcome the ongoing attacks of the flesh which would try to lead them back to the sin that had been washed away forever by their Savior.  He was reminding them that their victory has already been set aside by the One who had died for their sins and dwells within them.  He was emphasizing that they must live in reverent awe of their Savior and not be lead by the whims of their flesh. 

So it is with us.  We do not work to earn our salvation.  If we have received Jesus as Our Savior, we have been redeemed and washed clean of all of our sin.  The work of salvation that Paul speaks of is really the work of sanctification.  It is the process that we go through as we learn to lean on Jesus and not our own strength to overcome the work of the enemy in our lives.

Prayer
Heavenly Father, we proclaim our sin before You and ask for Your forgiveness. We thank You that this issue has been settled on our behalf for all eternity.  We pray that we may be continually washed by the blood of Your Son and strengthened daily by His presence in our lives.  We ask to live in reverent awe of who You are so that we will come under the purifying conviction of the Holy Spirit.

The Joyful Life of the Servant

Hebrews 13:6
So we can confidently say, “The Lord is my helper; I will not fear; what can man do to me?”

Do we see the Lord in all that we do?  If we do, there should be no drudgery in any task.  For in every task we should find the joy of Jesus.  If we are experiencing a lack of joy in our circumstances, then we are not believing Jesus for His promise to take our burdens.  If we are doubting the outcome of our efforts, then we are not believing Jesus for His promise to never forsake us.

Throughout life we must make Jesus Christ our foundation.  His Holy Spirit is our helper.   We must learn to trust in all the promises that God has revealed to us that confirm that He is working out all things for our eternal good.

Prayer,
Heavenly Father, we thank You for loving us so much that You promise never to leave us or forget about us.  We rejoice in knowing that You know every single thing that is going on in our lives and that You are working out all the details necessary for us to experience the fullness of joy through our relationship with Your Son.  Teach us, Lord, how to rely on the Holy Spirit to be our helper in every element of our lives.  Through our reliance on Your promises, may we find joy in our roles as grandparents, parents, children, citizens, employees, friends and neighbors.  Through all these things may we celebrate serving You.

Overcoming Pride

Philippians 2:8
Being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.

The fact that Jesus left His divine state to become a man illustrates an act of humility that surpasses anything that any human could ever imagine.  Accepting the lowliness of man, it would have been reasonable by any human standard that He would a least appear as a king. Not so for this divine man, He took not a royal station but accepted a position in a lowly manger.  His state within humankind never advanced to any level above the lowest elements of society.  He worked His entire ministry in the streets and hillsides among the common people.

His splendor was never to be seen by man until He ascended to His seat beside His Father in Heaven. In the meantime, He endured a life of poverty and suffering which ended in a exposition of public hatred and scorn.  Then, having no place for personal pride, He accepted death so that we may have life.

Let us lie before His Cross each day and learn from Our Savior King.  May our personal pride dissolve in the face of knowing why He made these choices – to save us from our sinful and prideful nature. 

Prayer
Heavenly Father, we humbly bow before Your throne, asking Your forgiveness for our sins.  We thank You for providing the way for us to overcome our sinful nature.  May we cling to the Cross of Our Savior.  May we learn to set aside our pride and serve those around us in the manner that You call us.  May we ignore the scorn of the world as we are obedient to Your calling on our lives.

May His Presence Fill Our Lives

Psalm 150:6
Let everything that has breath praise the LORD! Praise the LORD!

Our Lord, Jesus, is the fullness of joy that we have been so graciously provided once we receive Him as Our Savior.  Our lives are never the same once He dwells within us.  We come to realize a joy through His presence that surpasses anything that we can receive on earth.  As we count our blessings and share our good fortune with the world, let us not forget to mention the greatest blessing of all, Jesus Christ.

Prayer
Heavenly Father, we lift our voices up in high praise for Your precious Lamb, Jesus.  We proclaim His holiness and His righteousness.  We give thanks for His presence in our lives.  We pray Father that You open our eyes so that we may see His presence in the tiny things in life as well as the large things.  May our every breath praise Him as we come know just how dear He is to us.

In Reverent Awe of the Father

Psalm 25:12
Who is the man who fears the LORD? Him will he instruct in the way that he should choose.

Fear of God can be compared to fear of one’s earthly father.  While we fear punishment from our earthly father, it is the fear of offending the one we hold dearest that is so powerful.  It is the fear of disappointing the one that we want to please the most.  It is the fear of not living up to the expectations of the one that we hold in the highest place in our lives.  It is the fear of losing closeness with the one we desire to be closest to.  It is this fear that holds us in line when the world is trying to pull us out of line.

As good sons and daughters, we live in awe of the highest authority figures in our lives – Our Heavenly Father and our earthly father .  We are shaped through our entire lives by these relationships.

Prayer
Heavenly Father, we exalt Your name as the name that holds the highest place in our lives.  There is no name greater than Yours.  We thank You that we can live in the shadow of Your love, Your protection and Your provision.  We seek to deepen our relationship with You.  We pray that the Holy Spirit will help us to understand who You are so that we may live our lives in reverent awe of You.

Living by Grace

John 2:24-25 
But Jesus, on His part, was not entrusting Himself to them, for He knew all men, and because He did not need anyone to testify concerning man, for He Himself knew what was in man.

Simply put, man cannot be trusted.  The evil within the heart of each man is a snare that cannot be overcome without the grace of Our Savior.

We must put our trust in Jesus Christ.  If we put our trust in Him, we will find it easy to love Him above all things, to love our neighbors as ourselves, to tell others about Him and to give Him all the glory.  If we put our trust in Jesus, we will live according to the plans that He has set aside for us.

If we doubt the Lord in any area and put our trust in man instead,  we will fall short of God’s plans for our lives.  For the fullness of life, we must trust the grace of God in all things.

Prayer,
Heavenly Father, we praise You and thank You for providing Your Son, Jesus, to be the foundation of our trust in You and Your promises to us.  May we live each day in complete faith that Your Word is the foundation upon which our lives are built and sustained.  May we face each day knowing that Your Son is the source of everything we need.  May we never seek anything from man, but seek everything from Your grace.

Blessed Hope and Assurance

Romans 8:32
He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things?

Is it hope that we need today?  Are we seeking hope to relieve the pain that we are suffering, or hope to relieve the concern over the financial woes that are hounding us or perhaps hope to ease the torment of conflict in a relationship that we are feeling?  

In all these things we are more than conquerors through Him that loved us.  There is nothing in all of creation that can separate us from the love of God.  He sent the fallen angels from His kingdom forever because of their sins.  He flooded the earth because of the violence and evil of all mankind.  He destroyed all the people of Sodom and Gomorrah because of their wickedness.  Yet He spared us from our sins by giving us His Son.  Through His Son, He provides us with all our temporal needs and all of our spiritual blessings.  It is all given freely according to His good will and pleasure.

Prayer
Heavenly Father, we thank You for providing us with all of our needs, both temporal and spiritual.  We exalt the name of Jesus for providing us with that which we do not deserve and could never earn except through His death for our sins.  We praise You for the blessed hope and assurance of Our Savior.  He is all that we need.   We pray that You will help us find peace and strength in Him through all circumstances.

  




Ready to Be Instruments of His Love

Luke 9:61
Yet another said, “I will follow you, Lord, but let me first say farewell to those at my home.”

In the final passage in Luke 9, there are a number of verses which point out the costs of following Jesus.  In essence, each cost mentioned really applies to the type of excuses we will come up with to delay following what the Lord is calling us to do.

One of the most common excuses for many of us is “I am not capable or I am not ready to take on such a task.”  There is a faith gap that prevents us from believing that we can do what the Lord is asking of us.  We question the calling because it goes against our natural instincts. 

When we finally move forward with what God has asked us to do, we find out it never was about our ability.  It was about our faith in God.  When God calls us to do anything, large or small, we should leap into action with confidence in the One who called us.  It is through Him that the good work is done.  We are only instruments of His love.

Prayer
Heavenly Father, we thank You for choosing us to be instruments of Your good work.  We rejoice in knowing that we can share Your love with the world around us in so many different and powerful ways.  We pray that You open our eyes and prepare our hearts so that we do not delay any good work that You have set aside for us.

Take Heart

John 16:33
I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world.  

Jesus spoke directly to the apostles before He left the earth.  He wanted the apostles to know that even though He would be leaving them in the flesh that He would still be with them in spirit.  He wanted them to understand that He would be with them always as He is with the Father always.  He wanted them go forward in peace, without fear, having faith that the victory was theirs through Him.   He wanted them to be empowered by knowing that He had already overcome all the tribulation that the world and Satan himself had to offer. Through His indwelling with them, they would have the power that they needed to endure all things.

And so it is with us.  When we accept Jesus as Our Savior, His Spirit indwells with us.  We become one with Him as He is one with the Father.  We receive all that the apostles were promised.  When we surrender to Jesus, we have all that we need to overcome the temptations of Satan, the infirmities of our own flesh and the carnal offerings of the world.

Prayer
Heavenly Father, we humbly come before You in thanksgiving for the power that You have granted us through Your Son, Jesus.  We pray that You teach us how to develop and enjoy our relationship with Jesus.  May we find our strength in Jesus, just as Jesus found His strength in You when He was in the flesh.  May our victories over our tribulations bring honor and glory to You, to Your Son and to the Holy Spirit.