Mon, Feb 12th - 8:11AM
To Busy to Pray Psalm 102:1 February 12
1 Hear my prayer, Oh Lord, and let my cry come to You. Do not hide Your face from me in the day of my trouble.
David prays this prayer over and over again. He asks God for protection against his enemies. He asks God for healing when he is sick. He asks God to bless the nation. He asks God to be patient with him and he asks God to give him patience. David goes to God on his knees crying out to God again and again and again. It is as if he is praying to God or singing to God songs of thanksgiving and praise. It is as if David cannot get through a day without making God a part of it.
Perhaps this is what is wrong with our lives today. David’s life was consumed with God’s presence and with God’s power. He wanted God’s divine favor to guide him. David wanted God’s grace to surround him. He wanted God’s blessings in his life. David wanted what God had for him more than what the world had for him.
Look at what is so important in our lives. We get up in the morning and rush to get everyone up to go in their respective directions. We go to work or to school and we barely take time to consider the blessing of life that we so much take for granted. We are not thankful to God for all that He has done for us. we don’t take the time to praise Him for all that He has done for us and all that He is doing for us even at this moment. We are not even thankful, as we should be. Too many of us fail to even thank Him for the food that we eat; we are too busy to give thanks at the table or we are in public and are ashamed to bow our heads and give Him thanks for what we are about to eat and ask Him for His blessings on the rest of our day.
How many of us take some time during the day to sit down and spend time in His word because He is an important part of our lives and His Word is a lamp unto our feet and a light for our path so we might not sin against Him. It is no wonder that our faith is so shallow; we do not know Who He is and we are not aware of His promises to us.
How many times do we lay our heads down to go to sleep and we are so exhausted to even say a prayer of thanksgiving for the blessings of the day? How many days do we go through and it is as if there are no blessings for us to be thankful for when we lay down? Our lives are all messed up. Our families are in trouble. Our finances are a wreck. Our jobs are not fulfilling. It is as if our lives are running at full throttle headed nowhere.
Perhaps the reason is we are trying to do things on our own instead of taking the time to give God our prayers and our praise. Perhaps the reason that our lives are so difficult is we don’t take the time to give God His due place in our lives and in our days. He is not interested in our service to Him on Sunday. He wants our devotion on a daily basis.
Time is precious. Days go by so fast. There is never enough time to get everything done that we want to get done. so, why should we eliminate the most important part of our day and our lives? Why should we fail to give God the glory and the honor that He so much deserves in our lives? Perhaps if we did, our lives would slow down and our joy would increase and our troubles decrease and our blessings begin to overflow!
There are two things that are certain. If we continue doing what we have always done, we will continue to get what we have always gotten. If we are to busy for God, we are too busy and we need to do something about it and we need to do something today.
To receive these devotionals by email every morning, go to
www.sbgm.org/subscribe01.htm
"The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the Love of God and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with you."
><> Bob
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Wed, Feb 7th - 7:37AM
Abide in His Word John 8:31 February 7
Then Jesus said to the Jews who believed Him, “If you abide in My word, you are my disciples indeed. And you shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free.”
Jesus had met with the Jewish leaders and He told them that He was the Light of the World. They heard Him and asked Him many questions and He repeatedly told them that they would not believe in Him and those that did not believe in Him would die in their sin and could not go where He was going. He told them that He was not alone for He had been sent from above from the Father, that they would have known was the God of Israel. As He spoke these words, the Bible tells us that many of the Jews that heard Him believed in Him.
Jesus looked to that group and told them “If you will abide in My Word, then you are My disciples.” These Jews knew God’s Word. It is not enough to “know the Word”. The thing that Jesus is looking for are those that abide in His Word. A lot of people today “know” the Word of God. However, just like the unbelieving Jews, they refuse to believe and accept God’s Word for what it is and follow it as It says we should do.
A lot of people tell me that they find the Bible hard to read. I am personally convinced that the Bible is not as difficult to read as many would say but rather it is difficult to follow and that makes it difficult to read. I tell people who want to know more about God and about His Word, to begin to do what you know the Bible teaches and it will become easier to read and understand!
To abide is to live in His Word, to walk and rest and find our being in His Word. God’s Word is designed to affect every single aspect of our lives. As we learn to let His Word direct our every decision, we will begin to experience God’s peace that passes all understanding and we will find life full to overflowing and more satisfying than we could ever imagine.
This is what Jesus was trying to tell those Jews and this is the same message that He has for you and me today. When we abide in His Word, we shall know the truth because that truth shall set us free. It is not enough to just know the truth for the truth does not set us free in and of itself. It is when we abide in that truth that the truth sets us free.
Jesus lived and abided in the Truth and He endured every single temptation that the devil could throw at Him but He stood firm because He knew the truth. You and I have that same truth and the same Spirit that led Jesus dwelling in us as His disciples if we will just abide in His truth. If we will abide in Him, we shall come to know the truth in a personal way as that truth indeed does set us free! What a glorious promise from the Lord above!
As we seek to know Him in His Word and we walk with Him in an attitude of prayer on a moment by moment basis, God is able to make a profound difference in the lives that we life.
To receive these devotionals by email every morning, go to
www.sbgm.org/subscribe01.htm
"The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the Love of God and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with you."
><> Bob <><
Comment (4)
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Sun, Feb 4th - 8:53AM
Prayer on the Hour Romans 8:26 February 4
Likewise the Spirit helps with our infirmities: for we know not what we should pray for as we ought; but the Spirit makes intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered.
Prayer is perhaps the most unused and certainly underused source of strength and power that we have in our lives. When you and I became Christians, the Holy Spirit moved into our hearts to take up residency in our lives so that He could intercede on our behalf because “we do not know what we should pray for.” You and I do not know the mind of Christ. We do not know what His priorities are; we do not know what His plans are. We do not understand the extent of His blessings for our lives. So, what is the purpose of prayer? Why should we pray at all?
Prayer says to God, “I am Yours and You are mine.” Prayer acknowledges that you and I need God in our lives. Prayer thanks God for all that He has done for us and all that He has planned to do for us. Prayer allows us to take our cares and our concerns to Him. As we go to God in prayer, we acknowledge our need for Him in our lives. Prayer is a means of submitting ourselves to Him.
Since we do not know how to pray as we ought, the Holy Spirit speaks on our behalf. The Holy Spirit intercedes on our behalf before the great God of the universe. However, He also intercedes on God’s behalf in our hearts as well. As we pray, the Holy Spirit speaks to our heart and helps us make sense of our circumstances but more importantly helps us get from where we are to the place that God wants us to be. The Holy Spirit helps us move in the right direction as we make decisions on a day by day basis.
I cannot over state the importance that prayer plays in the direction that our lives take. Prayer allows the Holy Spirit to speak on our behalf and the more that the Spirit speaks for us and to us the more blessed our lives will be. I challenge you today to try to pray at the top of every hour. Thank God for blessing you and for His protecting hand in your life. Then ask God to give you the wisdom to know what to do in the hour to come and then ask Him to give you the strength to do what He would have you to do.
If you and I will reach up to the Lord, He will reach down to you and He will make a profound difference in your heart and in your life. The Holy Spirit will make that difference as you begin to practice prayer in your life on a daily basis.
To receive these devotionals by email every morning, go to
www.sbgm.org/subscribe01.htm
"The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the Love of God and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with you."
><> Bob <><
Comment (2)
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Name: Bob Hadley of Saved By Grace Ministries
