Daily Devotionals
Daily Devotional: Psalms 63:1-11
Ps 63:1-11
1 O God, you are my God, earnestly I seek you; my soul thirsts for you, my body longs for you, in a dry and weary land where there is no water. 2 I have seen you in the sanctuary and beheld your power and your glory. 3 Because your love is better than life, my lips will glorify you. 4 I will praise you as long as I live, and in your name I will lift up my hands. 5 My soul will be satisfied as with the richest of foods; with singing lips my mouth will praise you. 6 On my bed I remember you; I think of you through the watches of the night. 7 Because you are my help, I sing in the shadow of your wings. 8 My soul clings to you; your right hand upholds me. 9 They who seek my life will be destroyed; they will go down to the depths of the earth. 10 They will be given over to the sword and become food for jackals. 11 But the king will rejoice in God; all who swear by God's name will praise him, while the mouths of liars will be silenced.
It is easy to remember God in the sanctuary and when we are singing praises to him. When we are sitting in church and surrounded by others who are all dressed up and singing with us, we can focus on God and we have no problem feeling that we are close to him. This is serving God at its very best!
But is it really? Do we remember God when we are on our bed at night? Is he with us in our most private times when no one else is around or when we are faced with difficult situations in life? Maybe our best service to God is when we take a moment to notice and play with a small child. Maybe our best service is when we help someone in need or we give a kind word to an elderly person or give our neighbor a ride to the doctor. These are the times we let Jesus live in us.
A disciple of Christ is one who follows him and lets him live through us. Too many have mistaken being “religious” for being a follower of Christ. When our religion is defined only by what we do in a church building, we have missed the point. We are to let the Spirit live in us daily and in doing this we draw near to God. But when we live according to the flesh and our own desires we are in opposition to God. True religion before God is to help orphans and widows and to keep oneself untarnished by the lusts and defilements of this world.
Heavenly Father I am so thankful for your wonderful love shown to me in more ways than I can count or even know. Thank you for your word which tells me how to live. Thank you for your people, both dead and living, who have and do show me how to be what you want me to become. Help me focus on Jesus and put my trust in him as my Savior and not in my own doing or in things of this world. Use me to serve you by serving others around me. Help me today to be loving and kind and to be patient and forgiving. I humbly pray in Jesus name.
Robert
