Saturday Reading: Psalm 56:8-13
Key Verse: Psalm 56:11
11 In God I have put my trust; I will not be afraid of what man can do to me.
Devotion:
If ever we can take encouragement from what others have written for us in our bibles it is from the times when people faced their enemies and, instead of giving in and falling in subjection to them, they stood up proud and lifted up God. David was here being taken by the Philistines and yet he continued to lift up God and say how he would always depend on God. He even goes as far as saying that he will not worry about what man can do.
If we stop to think about that statement then we can put things into perspective in our own lives as well. No matter how much man can try to do to us, he is not able to take away our soul from God’s grip! No matter how much man can try to subject us to torment and pain, no matter how much man can try to break us down, all he is succeeding is breaking our bodies and possibly our spirit. Our soul rests firmly in God’s awesome grip! With that knowledge we can lift up our spirit no matter how much other people do to us. With that knowledge we can be lifted up even in the most dire situations.
As a youth leader you have to face up to some flack much of the time because our youth of today have been given enough rope to hang themselves day after day – and that is exactly what they will try to do because they cannot see any other way forward. We need to be reaching out to them and showing them that they are not alone – this has happened time and time again since a very early age. Man is the corrupt one in this world and it is man who is bent on destroying man. God is trying to show people the truth so that they can be encouraged to follow Him and to enjoy life to the full. Christ came to seek and to save not to break and to enslave. We do not need to rebel, simply to turn back to God and accept His helping hand that He has extended to us from our first breaths in life – that same hand that will always be extended right up until the moment we die. What faith He has!
Points to Ponder:
Do you feel weak and weary?
Are you reaching out to God’s extended hands?