Daily Devotionals
Daily Devotional: Psalms 66:16-20
Ps 66:16-20
16 Come and listen, all you who fear God; let me tell you what he has done for me. 17 I cried out to him with my mouth; his praise was on my tongue. 18 If I had cherished sin in my heart, the Lord would not have listened; 19 but God has surely listened and heard my voice in prayer. 20 Praise be to God, who has not rejected my prayer or withheld his love from me!
Phil 2:25-27
25 But I think it is necessary to send back to you Epaphroditus, my brother, fellow worker and fellow soldier, who is also your messenger, whom you sent to take care of my needs. 26 For he longs for all of you and is distressed because you heard he was ill. 27 Indeed he was ill, and almost died. But God had mercy on him, and not on him only but also on me, to spare me sorrow upon sorrow.
One of the things that always stands out in my mind when reading the gospel accounts of the life of Jesus is how he had compassion on the people. When they were hungry, he understood because he had gone forty days without food and he was hungry. When they were misled by their leaders, he knew what they faced because he also had been tempted by the devil. When they were sick or were controlled by evil spirits or had been born with some affliction, he felt their pain and he healed many of them. He was human and he understood their problems.
Jesus knows what you and I are facing today. Whatever we have in our lives, he understands and he has compassion on us. He may choose to take our affliction or problem or sickness and give us healing or he may just give us strength to be able to endure it. Either way, he knows and will do what is best for us.
This is why we are told to rejoice in the Lord always. When everything is going good or we have just won an award or our child has had a major accomplishment or we got a promotion, we rejoice and praise the Lord. But even if we have just had a stroke or our parent was diagnosed with cancer or our child was in a car wreck, we can still rejoice in the Lord because we know that Jesus is watching, he knows our pain and his compassion is with us. While we do not enjoy the moment and we are not happy about it, we rejoice in the Lord because we trust him.
O Lord what a blessing to be able to trust you in all things – when life is good or when it seems to have fallen in all around me – you are good! Thank you for letting me know that you love me and that you do have compassion on me in my troubles. It is also a blessing to know that you rejoice with me when things are great in my life too. Thank you for friends and family who weep with me and who also rejoice with me. I ask you to be with those who are sick and those who are hurting and give them your healing. I pray in the name of Jesus my Lord.
Robert
