Daily Devotionals
Daily Devotional: Psalms 123:1-4
Ps 123:1-4
1 I lift up my eyes to you, to you whose throne is in heaven. 2 As the eyes of slaves look to the hand of their master, as the eyes of a maid look to the hand of her mistress, so our eyes look to the LORD our God, till he shows us his mercy. 3 Have mercy on us, O LORD, have mercy on us, for we have endured much contempt. 4 We have endured much ridicule from the proud, much contempt from the arrogant.
2 Tim 4:16-18
16 At my first defense, no one came to my support, but everyone deserted me. May it not be held against them. 17 But the Lord stood at my side and gave me strength, so that through me the message might be fully proclaimed and all the Gentiles might hear it. And I was delivered from the lion's mouth. 18 The Lord will rescue me from every evil attack and will bring me safely to his heavenly kingdom. To him be glory for ever and ever. Amen.
Life can be hard. Life can be cruel. At times life seems unfair. To us it looks like the righteous suffer and the wicked prosper. Too often the good die young and those who openly defy God live to an old age. How do we make sense of all of this when we are told we serve a loving and merciful God? There is no good reason.
At least from our human perspective there is no good reason. We are looking for comfort and ease but what God has in mind is preparing us for eternity. It is by adversity that we grow in our faith as we learn to depend on God instead of on ourselves. One of the weapons used by the devil against us is that he uses those who are wicked to seek to harm us and make our lives difficult. Job suffered, not because of his sin but because he was righteous. When the Spirit of the Lord left Saul, he sought to kill David because he was doing right. Jesus was tortured and killed because he was sinless. Should we expect less than the Son of God?
Paul was deserted by his friends but God stood by his side and gave him the strength he needed to overcome. God will stand with us as we go through being treated unfairly, when we wrestle with grief and loss, when we are tempted and when our whole world crashes in around us. God is faithful so we must be too.
O Lord my God, in whom I live and move and by whose power I take every breath, I am so thankful for you mercy and your continual care over me. I falter in my faith and in the things I do (or don’t do) so I need you every hour. Lord, please be with those who are going through the terrible disaster caused by Harvey. Help each one turn to you and look to your word as they trust in your strength and your mercy. Give them healing as they put their lives back together and others as they deal with grief in the loss of those they love. I pray in the name of Jesus.
Robert
