Daily Devotionals
Daily Devotional: Psalms 69:29-36
Ps 69:29-36
29 I am in pain and distress; may your salvation, O God, protect me. 30 I will praise God's name in song and glorify him with thanksgiving. 31 This will please the LORD more than an ox, more than a bull with its horns and hoofs. 32 The poor will see and be glad--you who seek God, may your hearts live! 33 The LORD hears the needy and does not despise his captive people. 34 Let heaven and earth praise him, the seas and all that move in them, 35 for God will save Zion and rebuild the cities of Judah. Then people will settle there and possess it; 36 the children of his servants will inherit it, and those who love his name will dwell there.
Matt 26:36-39
36 Then Jesus went with his disciples to a place called Gethsemane, and he said to them, "Sit here while I go over there and pray." 37 He took Peter and the two sons of Zebedee along with him, and he began to be sorrowful and troubled. 38 Then he said to them, "My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death. Stay here and keep watch with me." 39 Going a little farther, he fell with his face to the ground and prayed, "My Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me. Yet not as I will, but as you will."
There was a man named Jesus. He was flesh and blood just like you and me. He had the same pains, same sorrows, same anxieties and heartaches. He was indeed one of us. This man was sorrowful and troubled, overwhelmed to the point of death. The writer of Hebrews says that he learned (experienced) obedience by the things he suffered. Every part of his being wanted to escape the horrors that were about to come upon him but he wanted even more to obey the Father.
Not only did Jesus know he was about to suffer beyond human imagination to comprehend, but that he was going to die for what someone else (all mankind) had done wrong to his Father; even though he knew he had done nothing against him. In all this, his closest friends would leave him and even deny they knew him. Then, as if this were not enough, his own Father would turn his back and allow him to die the cruel death of crucifixion along with common thieves. But he kept entrusting himself to the one who judges righteously. We can trust God too!
Heavenly Father increase my faith to be more faithful and obedient. Help me trust you to give me wisdom and strength to be more like Jesus. Hallelujah! What a Savior! I look at Jesus and see his perfection and I see my own weakness and too often, my selfishness and then realize how much he loved me to die for my sin and not his own. I need your constant presence, your strength, your peace in a world filled with turmoil and your forgiveness. I pray in the name of Jesus.
Robert
