February 19, 2013
How we handle money and possessions reveals much about our hearts. The one with integrity not only repays their debts, but gives generously to those in need. The one with a wicked heart avoids even repaying what is owed, much less being a giver to others. Has your heart’s believing in Christ affected your hand’s behavior as regards money? Integrity is having your heart and hands in agreement.
February 18, 2013
David wrote this psalm describing ways to offer yourself to God and the outcome of such a life devoted to Him. “Trust” – Put your faith in the Lord. “Delight” – Find your joy in the Lord. “Commit” – Decide in advance to do things God’s way no matter what. “Be still” – Remember to listen for the Lord’s voice in prayer. His answer will quiet your fretting heart. Have you tried approaching the Lord in these four ways?
February 13, 2013
David wrote this psalm during the time he was hiding from Saul among the Philistines. Unfortunately, when we come up with human schemes to avoid trouble we often jump from the frying pan into the fire. Yet, it is never too late to cry out to God for help. David was delivered from his fears. We can bring our fears to God too. He will hear us and answer.
February 12, 2013
David wrote this psalm during the time he was hiding from Saul among the Philistines. Unfortunately, when we come up with human schemes to avoid trouble we often jump from the frying pan into the fire. Yet, it is never too late to cry out to God for help. David was delivered from his fears. We can bring our fears to God too. He will hear us and answer.
February 10, 2013
David wrote this psalm to express the blessing of being forgiven. Here, he described how it felt to have unconfessed sin between him and God. Keeping silent about his sin left him aching and discouraged. It put up a barrier between him and God that disturbed his sleep and sapped his strength. When he could take it no more, he acknowledged and confessed his sin to the Lord. And God forgave. Hidden sin is corrosive to both body and soul. Confess your sin, for God is faithful and just to forgive and cleanse you from all unrighteousness (1 John 1:9).
February 6, 2013
David learned that there are seasons to grief and gladness. The Lord is not absent in one and present in the other. He is present in both. And often, we are most aware of God during a time of despair. Have you learned to practice the Presence of God, regardless of the circumstances? Do not despair. The darkness will soon depart. Open the curtain and let the joy of Jesus shine in.
February 3, 2013
Have you yet cried aloud to the Lord as David did? The Psalms teach us to seek the Lord regardless of our state. Every emotional status from joy to despair is represented in the Psalms. David, the man after God’s own heart, teaches us to seek God with all of our hearts. Perhaps David was experiencing a “dark night of the soul” as St. John of the Cross once wrote. God often allows a growing believer to experience a season of spiritual dryness to teach them to thirst after Him. David knew what to do when he was spiritually thirsty. Do you?
January 29, 2013
This Davidic psalm begins with an announcement of God’s ownership of everything and everyone. Believing that God is owner and that we are stewards, servants of God caring for His creation is a life-changing principle. Many Christians claim to believe this, yet they behave as if their stuff is really “their” stuff. One of the great sins of American Christianity is the idolatry of materialism. Our happiness is attached to our possessions. This is the sin of greed. What is the antidote? Giving. Live a life of the open hand, tithing from your first fruits and giving sacrificially to any need that the Spirit shows you. In this way, you acknowledge God’s ownership and your stewardship.
January 28, 2013
From David’s famous shepherd psalm. Those that follow the Lord are led on right paths by Him. God does this for the sake of His own Name. God’s purpose is to make us righteous like His Son, who declared “I am the Good Shepherd” (John 10:11). In this leading, God cares more for our character than our comfort. He is not working in us for our pleasure, for our name, but for His Name. Therefore, we do not fear when we walk through the valley of the shadow of death, because the Good Shepherd is with us, and His purpose is sure. God is making us like His Son (1 John 3:2).
January 26, 2013
This Davidic psalm begins with the question that Jesus cried out at the end. David surely wrote this psalm with his own feeling, yet I wonder how much awareness he had that he was describing the Messiah’s death. Did the Spirit awaken him at night to feel the agony of crucifixion: “I am poured out like water, all my bones are out of joint, they have pierced my hands and feet and cast lots for my clothing?” Written centuries before the Romans invented the cruel practice, the Spirit revealed crucifixion to David. Psalm 22 is filled with prophetic details that are only fulfilled in the Son of David, Jesus the Christ.