July 28: Psalms 119 145-148
Key Verse: Psalms 119 148
My eyes stay open through the watches of the night, that I may meditate on your promises.
Devotion:
When things get desperate, we start to get desperate – but how desperate do you have to be before you call out to God and ask Him to help, no matter what! Many times we lift up prayers with pre-conditions. We ask God to help us in a way we can deal with it, but not put ourselves out! What are we thinking!
When we ask God to help us, we should be willing to accept whatever God gives us with the full knowledge He knows what is best for us and will continue to help us in ways we cannot understand. When this Psalms was written down, the author calls out to God in desperation but tries to bolster his chances of the prayers being answered by promising things to God… if you help me I will obey your scriptures! If you help me I will keep to your rules and regulations!
Things start to change when he says he continues to think about what God is doing in his life and continues to wonder why… If we accept God is doing things in our lives and accept He does know what is best for us, then when we sit down and really understand what He does and try to figure out why He does, then we will begin to understand true grace and forgiveness.
God wants us to know Him and His ways, not just to follow them blindly, but to really think about why God is helping us out. The more we understand why God is helping us, the more we will realise how much more God wants to do. What we also need to accept is God is also going to help out those people around us, some of whom we may not feel like they deserve help – but God knows best!
Points to Ponder:
Do you put conditions on your prayers?
Will you do what God asks even if your prayers are not answered your way?
July 27: Psalms 106 6-8
Key Verse: Psalms 106 7
When our ancestors were in Egypt, they gave no thought to your miracles; they did not remember your many kindnesses, and they rebelled by the sea, the Red Sea.
Devotion:
God remains the same, the same as He was in the beginning and the same as He will be in our futures. We need to remember what God has done in our pasts and in the pasts of our ancestors so we can know His power, might, love and forgiveness. Just as God showed love to the people when they were trapped and enslaved in Egypt, so He continues to show love every day of our lives.
The people cried out to God to save them from being slaves. They called on His might and power to free them. And He did. But soon after they were freed, they forgot the miracles God did because they were free and able to think for themselves… therein lies one of our downfalls – the more we try and think things through, the more we think we are in control and the less we rely on God for things. That is where things go wrong.
Not because God wants to punish us for the things we are doing, not because He wants to pull us back in line, but because we lose control when we think we are in control. We do not have the will or the power to release ourselves from the corruption and entrapments of this world; we give in too easily and we forget who has the ultimate power!
But, no matter how much we ignore God, reject Him or generally mess things up, He continues to try and give us a way of coming back to Him and enjoying the strength we gain from being with Him. God will use mere human beings to show us His power and His might – we just have to identify who is in control and who is allowing great things to happen in our midst!
Points to Ponder:
Do you see God’s work around you?
Are you willing to allow God to use you?
July 26: Psalms 105 1-4
Key Verse: Psalms 105 4
Look to the Lord and his strength; seek his face always.
Devotion:
How do you re-connect with God after a bad experience? How do you try to get over what has happened and move forward? Well, it is God alone who will be able to allow you to do this because no matter how strong you think you are as a human, the only thing you can achieve is human sized and getting back to God is a whole new matter. I thank God He continues to allow me to remember this and allows me to grow stronger with Him every day.
I’ve lived in the world, lost my way with God, gone off on a long walk without Him and never gave it much of a thought. That’s the thing, when you do walk off on your own, you look for things to occupy your mind and try to fill your heart with all manner of earthly distractions. When you hit another wall you realise it was all a bit much and forget about all which has gone before and all you see is the wall!
God wants to lift you up over the wall and allow you to see what is on the other side. When you do get a glimpse of the other side, you can then lift up a word of praise to God – that will lead to another word and maybe even a song. The song will lift up your heart and allow you to remember all the wonderful things God has done for you in the past; things to look forward to once again.
Look to the Lord, not in your own strength, but for the strength to be able to hold your head up so you can praise Him and continue to lift up your head to look at Him face to face. God wants to continue His personal relationship with you every day and allow you to have many reasons to praise Him, sing to Him and give Him the glory!
Points to Ponder:
Whose strength do you rely on day by day?
Will you start depending more on God’s strength today?
July 25: Psalms 51 10-12
Key Verse: Psalms 51 11
Do not cast me from your presence or take your Holy Spirit from me.
Devotion:
So, you’re feeling down. You don’t feel like you can connect with God. You know you have done something wrong. You can’t see a way out. What do you do? People tell you to “get right with God!” How?!?!
God does not expect you to have the answers. He does not expect you to know exactly what to do. He knows you are in a state and He knows you cannot connect with Him just by reading the bible like other Christians do. God has the answers and He knows what to do.
How hard do you find it waiting for a bus which is already late because traffic is really bad? How do you find waiting when you don’t know the answers? None of us find it easy and none of us knows an easy way out of the problem… we all face very different situations in our walk with God and there is no “one size fits all” answer to everyone’s problems because God made us all very different, unique.
I find this part of the Psalms very helpful when things get on top of me because it seems to give me a platform from which I can move forward with God; not because I have the strength to do much about it, but because God has the strength to do something I cannot do. It starts off by asking God to help straighten things out because I know I cannot do it. It asks God to renew those feelings I had before. It asks God to do what I cannot do.
There is always the fear God will cut us loose because we have done things wrong, but we should know this is not true. He has promised us He will never let us go and nothing in this world will be able to take us away from God; that includes our feelings. God can restore those feelings and can bring back that joy which brings back the willing spirit and sustains us once again.
Points to Ponder:
How bad do things have to get before you ask for help?
Will you ask for help whilst things are still OK?
July 24: Psalms 51 1-6
Key Verse: Psalms 51 5
Surely I was sinful at birth, sinful from the time my mother conceived me.
Devotion:
The more honest we are with God, the more we will be able to see just how precious the reconciliation He has prepared for us! This Psalms was written some time after King David had committed adultery with Bathsheba and had her husband sent to his certain death on the front line. We may have questioned whether God should forgive such a deed from a person who is supposed to be an example to others, but ours is not to question God’s judgement or love!
David does not demand anything from God but humbly submits to God’s judgement and offers a plea for God’s great compassion to cover his sins and allow forgiveness to be the outcome instead. If we had followed the rule of the land or the rules God laid down, David should have been put to death; instead we see a Loving and Forgiving God who is willing to listen to David’s prayer because He knows what is on David’s heart.
So it is not dependant on us being good enough to get forgiven for the little sins, but fully dependant on God’s grace to cover our sins, no matter what they are. If we are sincere and open our hearts with honesty to have a relationship with God, we can be assured of His willingness to forgive us of our sins!
We could argue we have been born full of sin and the only way we can escape the punishment for our sin is if someone who has no sin in them is able to stand and take on our sin debt instead of us having to pay for it. Jesus Christ alone is that person who has no sin in Him and is able to stand in our stead. He alone is able to forgive us because He took on our sin debt. God implanted the knowledge of good and bad in our hearts before we were born – we choose which path to follow...
Points to Ponder:
Do you admit to your problems in your heart?
Will you honestly and humbly talk to God about your sins?