Daily Devotionals
Daily Devotional: Psalms 38:9-16
Ps 38:9-16
9 All my longings lie open before you, O Lord; my sighing is not hidden from you. 10 My heart pounds, my strength fails me; even the light has gone from my eyes. 11 My friends and companions avoid me because of my wounds; my neighbors stay far away. 12 Those who seek my life set their traps, those who would harm me talk of my ruin; all day long they plot deception. 13 I am like a deaf man, who cannot hear, like a mute, who cannot open his mouth; 14 I have become like a man who does not hear, whose mouth can offer no reply. 15 I wait for you, O LORD; you will answer, O Lord my God. 16 For I said, "Do not let them gloat or exalt themselves over me when my foot slips.”
1 Peter 1:5-7
6 In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. 7 These have come so that your faith-of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire-may be proved genuine and may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed.
Rejoice – really? How can I be so down and out and rejoice? Then someone tells me that all that I am suffering is going to make me a better person so what is happening is really good for me. They obviously don’t understand the pain that haunts my body, the guilt that overwhelms my mind, the hurt in my broken heart or grief that has filled my heart! Problems, pain, suffering, grief, loneliness and all the other things that afflict us are real and make us want to give up on life.
This is one of those things that is so much easier to teach and tell others than it is to live it in our own lives. This is when doubt fills our hearts and we wonder if God really does keep his promises to be with us and help us.
But this is when we are to take our eyes off of our problems and trying to figure out why they are happening. Instead of focusing on how much we are suffering, we are to focus our eyes on Jesus. We fill our minds with the promise that the worst we face now does not begin to compare to the glory of being with our Lord in eternity and in the place he has prepared for us. We look to Jesus and see the example he left in trusting God while suffering. In Him we overcome!
Thank you God and praise be to your name! You have made all things wonderful and have given me all I need to have eternal life when this life is over. You make the abundant life possible now in Jesus Christ and give me a joy and peace that are so deep and so real that the world cannot understand them and the devil cannot take them away. Open my eyes to see that serving others is how I can serve you. Help me always encourage others. Help me never forget that my life is not about me but is about serving you. I pray in the name of Jesus.
Robert
