Category: Daily Devotionals

I will never forget your precepts, for by them you have given me life.  Psalm 119:93

If you could choose one of the following two teachers, who would it be?  The topic they’ve been given to cover is ~ THE COMFORTING WORK OF THE HOLY SPIRIT.

#1. The first teacher does a word study on ‘comfort.  He cross references well and takes you to many passages and stories where God creatively comforted His children.  It’s obvious he has a grasp of the topic and is out to share information with those who will listen.  The handouts he provides are extensive.

#2. The second teacher speaks briefly about the text.  He, too, defines ‘comfort’ and references some related passages.  Then, thoughtfully, he begins to reminisce and speak of a time when he was in desperate need of comfort and companionship.  It was not to be found.  He was alone in a world of family and friends and wondered how he could make it one more day in his sense of isolation.  He pressed into God and experienced the comforting work of the Spirit firsthand.

The first teacher works hard at his faith but it’s mostly cerebral.  Like a graduating senior who tries to remember calculus formulas so he can ace his freshman math course in college, this bible scholar files away biblical facts.  He approaches the bible like a textbook to be mastered.  His knowledge of God is based mostly on what he has read, not on what he has experienced.

The second teacher is not so much aware that he is a student as much as he is a disciple of one he loves dearly.  Life’s experiences brought him to the end of himself and his great need of a Savior ushered him into a relationship with Jesus. As he told the story, you were unaware of time and the weight of his words fell on your heart.

How much easier to remember God’s precepts when they have been woven into the cement of our experiences.  When the Word has been life-saving, it is not soon forgotten.

 Help me teach others through the storylines of my life.  Amen

My soul longs for your salvation; I hope in your word.  Psalm 119:81

I’m guessing that each of us is waiting for something to be resolved that is painfully unresolved.  While it hangs in the balance, there is continual longing.

Someone is waiting to get well.  Someone else is waiting for a job or anxious to go back to work.  An anxious mom is waiting for inner peace.  A harassed spouse is waiting for intervention.  Someone very ill is waiting for a definitive diagnosis.  Someone is waiting for deliverance out of crushing circumstances.  Someone else is waiting for the ability to face the future after the death of a loved one.   All are waiting for the fulfillment of God’s promises.

I can never know if the salvation I seek is of the immediate kind, the kind that will come in the next twelve months, or is of a distant kind.  The prophets waited on a word and it stretched their eyes to distant horizons.  Abraham believed but he never got to see “the Word become flesh.”  Yet, the hope of it sustained him.

All my hope lies in God.   The knowledge of salvation, now or in the future, sustains and comforts me.  I do know this ~ I will live to see His Word fulfilled.  My hope is well placed because His promises are solid.  In whatever ways my faith is stretched, in whatever ways salvation waits on some distant horizon, God will give me grace to wait.  He will fill my heart with the Word of promise and with the hope that comes every word He speaks.  I don’t need to see it come true today to know joy.  I just need to know and believe the One who says that it will come true.

Creation groans for the revealing of the sons of God.  In the waiting, His Word continues to pulsate in my spirit with the kisses of promise.

Your Word simmers beneath the surface of my heart. Ever warm, I feel its comfort. Ever powerful, I feel its hope.  Amen

I do not turn aside from your rules, for you have taught me.  Psalm 119:102

Most of God’s children caught the essence of their faith from another person.  Seeing faith in action was the catalyst for their own new birth.  Once they trusted Christ, that person who was so influential, most likely, also became the one who discipled them.

A potentially dangerous thing can happen, at that point, they are not shown how to connect with God in His Word and prayer.  They will learn to depend on the mentor instead of on God.  The one who disciples others does a poor job if they fail to transfer their student’s dependence on to their new Heavenly Father.

Second hand faith never works well for long.  When teachers tell me, “This is what God says…”, I end up becoming me a weak child of God.  When adversity comes, and when I need God the most, mentors can fill in the gap but only God’s voice and presence will give me what I need to survive.  I can more easily turn aside from God’s ways if I live off the faith of others.

The application is two fold.  1.) Upon whom do I depend today?  If they give me their support and their comfort, will I reach out to God as well?  I must.  Because at some point, they will fail to give me their support, and I will fail to have the strength I need to stand up tall in faith.   And, 2.) Who am I training today?  Who leans on me?  Am I intentionally showing them how to live in the Word and to hear the Spirit’s voice or am I fostering dependence on me because of my need for significance?

When the Spirit of God is our teacher, we will walk God’s paths with joy and endurance.  Only His voice gives the strength needed for the long journey.

Lord, I tried to walk faithfully simply by watching other strong Christians.  I failed miserably.  Only when I heard Your voice for myself did my strength come.  Help me pass that on as my legacy.  Amen

Your statutes have been my song in the house of my sojourning.  Psalm 119:54

Everyone’s home experience falls somewhere on the continuum between bad and good.  For some, it was predominantly positive.  For others, mostly negative.  But for most, it was life-giving punctuated with some hardships.  One thing is for certain for all of us; home is temporary.  Just ask any who are old enough to have buried their parents and watch as their childhood home was sold to strangers.

So what kind of statutes was the psalmist referring to in today’s scripture?  What could possibly make me sing in the home of my ‘temporary-ness’?  Why would I want to sing if my experience was painful?  What kind of joyful song could be composed if my home was a wonderful place, but is now just a distant memory?  How about lyrics that express these truths!

I existed with God before I was ever born to my family.

He loved me from before time, before I had a last name.

I’ll have a home He’s preparing for me that no one can take away; it will exceed any pleasure of my earthly home.

My identity in the kingdom is solid through and through, even though I may have been undefined here and opportunities lost.

I have a beautiful name that means something even if my name here has negative ties.

Family members do not always greet each other with hugs and affirmations.  When homes are unlike the kingdom, we do not have to wander off in shame and anonymity.  Lyrics are waiting to be crafted.  Melodies are waiting to be hummed.  Songs are waiting to be birthed on the tongues of those who have long realized they need a real home, a lasting refuge, a perfect Father.  Every statute of our permanent Father is waiting to be discovered, then sung by the tongues of His children.

Many orphans have heard you call them home.  They finally found where they belong.  I am a child in the children’s parade; we’re all making our way home to the gates of your kingdom.  Amen

Your righteousness is righteous forever, and your law is true.  Psalm 119:142

It’s tough not knowing where you stand with someone you love.  Even tougher with someone you need.  If that person’s values have never been made clear, if their personality is hidden, then the relationship flounders.

If God is that unknown person, any security I might feel with Him is non-existent.  If I don’t know Him; what He’s like, what He loves, what He values, what He hates, then I will have no idea if what I do pleases or displeases Him.  I will approach Him with a nervous heart, wondering if I am good standing.  I will be like a nervous child peeking around the doorway to a parent’s room, wondering if they approve of me.

Security for any child begins with secure parents.  The adults set up parameters for how the home operates.  There are family systems in place so that everyone knows where they fit in.  With no guesswork and with righteous leadership, children flourish.

So it is in God’s family.  He is righteous.  He leads righteously.  His Word is true, safe, and reliable.  This provides an infrastructure where faith flourishes, where prayers are confident.  Because I know who my Father is, I know what to pray for and I know the nature of the One who says He loves to bless meGod’s Word frames an infrastructure where His children move around inside with safety, confidence and joy.  The laws were written with love.  They don’t change for anyone, under any circumstances, and are permanently in tact.  Guesswork is a thing of the past. This infrastructure, the haven of the kingdom, is the place my soul lives and thrives forever – starting now.

You, and everything having to do with You, are permanent and enduring.  I can breathe out a sigh of relief because my home with You is a place I can relax and know I’m finally home.  Thank you for knowing how to handle children.  Amen

Let your mercy come to me that I might live.  Psalm 119:77

The psalmist could not fully understand how his cry for mercy would be fulfilled in Christ.  He saw mercy as a ‘thing’ God would bestow.  Ultimately, God sent mercy as a person.  Mercy touched our eyes so we could see God, forgave our sins so we could approach God, and ultimately died so we could belong to God as sons and daughters.

Mercy was not something Jesus had to learn.  It was part of His character.  I can’t understand the kind of love that fuels mercy either.  It was mercy that prompted Him to come as a baby to a turbulent Roman world.  Mercy subjected Him to chaos and murderous plots.  Mercy led Him to die for people who needed forgiveness yet were insulted by the suggestion of their need for it.

The baby who embodied mercy came with a sword in His mouth because mercy comes with a partner.  Truth.  When truth hits hard, mercy is right there to catch me when I fall.  Truth tells me that I’m a sinner and doomed to pay for it.  Mercy reminds me that He loved me enough to pay sin’s price in my place so I can be freed from my guilty verdict.

The sword of truth in Jesus’ mouth was veiled for a time.  He was a baby, like us, who cried  indistinguishable words.  Not for long though.  Once He started speaking, earth has never been the same.  When His Word is read or spoken, the sword still falls.  For any who desire to see, truth invades deception and cuts with a clean slice.  Mercy comes right along behind it.  Jesus, my merciful Savior, offers hope and redemption if I do my part to embrace the truth of my need.

“Let mercy come to me” is a beautiful prayer.  However, the beauty will never be experienced if I pretend I have no need of it.  By brushing it aside, it is cheapened to a mere trinket.  People cry out for want of love, of goodness, of beauty and of mercy and yet refuse to prepare their hearts to see all of this in God.  Mercy is there, resident in Christ.  The kingdom is here now.

Reveal my need of You.  Let Your mercy come to me.  In Jesus’ name, Amen