Saturday 28 Jul 2012

Saturday Reading: Psalm 72:1-4

Key Verse: Psalm 72:2
2  He shall judge thy people with righteousness, and thy poor with judgment.

Devotion:
I guess there are stages in our lives when we think that we depend more on God than at other stages and it seems to be a common thing that the more fragile we are the more we look to God for help. It may be that we call on God more when we are older or shout out to Him when we are not well, and then turn away from Him when we are fit and enjoying ourselves. It may be that we think that we need Him more when we are poor or living in poverty and less when we have lots of money. If I am honest then this does reflect my early walk with Christ because when I was successful I turned away from God and embraced the world, but when I began to lose it all I turned back to Him. It was quite a surprise to find out that God was still waiting patiently for me to come back to Him!

I have chosen this passage for this devotion, not because it is a plea for help but because of the target of those pleas. We often think of God being there for the people that need it and as I outlined above we think of those people as the poor and needy people. So why is this Psalm asking for God to help the king? Simple. We all need God in our lives. We all need His guidance and His help. Kings and Queens need Him just as much as the poor and needy; in fact they may well need Him more because of the temptations and distractions that they will face.

The more that I walk with Christ the more I realise just how much I need Him in my life. I have been through many things in the last decade, through rough and tough times, through times of prosperity and through times of great happiness and yet I look back and I realise that I continue to need Him every day and in every circumstance. I need Him during the highs and I need Him during the lows, not because that’s when I need Him most but because without Him I lose my way! I lose my way when I am distracted by things that are good and also by those things that feel like they are pulling me under the water.

So this is my reminder that we all need Christ in our lives and we need Him every hour of every day. We must not “put Him in a box and shove Him in a corner” as we sing at kids club. Instead we need to include Him in every step of our lives, or in other words we need to be in a proper relationship with Christ no matter what the circumstances of our life. Being in a relationship means going through things together both in the good times and in the bad times. God wants to be there, always; let Him be there for you.

Points to Ponder:
How can you identify when you need someone?

How can you say when you need God?