Daily Devotionals
Daily Devotional: Psalms 88:1-9
Ps 88:1-9
1 O LORD, the God who saves me, day and night I cry out before you. 2 May my prayer come before you; turn your ear to my cry. 3 For my soul is full of trouble and my life draws near the grave. 4 I am counted among those who go down to the pit; I am like a man without strength. 5 I am set apart with the dead, like the slain who lie in the grave, whom you remember no more, who are cut off from your care. 6 You have put me in the lowest pit, in the darkest depths. 7 Your wrath lies heavily upon me; you have overwhelmed me with all your waves. Selah 8 You have taken from me my closest friends and have made me repulsive to them. I am confined and cannot escape; 9 my eyes are dim with grief.
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.
There are few, if any, who stand above the Apostle Paul and King David when it came to the amount of persecution and the number of times that they were in danger of being killed for their faith. David spent many years running from King Saul, who wanted to kill him because he was jealous of his accomplishments. Paul gave up a wealthy and influential life to become a disciple of Jesus and in doing this, he was persecuted and threatened with death for the rest of his life.
No matter how great our faith and not matter how much we know that God will take care of us, we still have moments (or longer) when we have doubts come through our minds or we wonder how long or why this is happening to me in the first place. You can think of the person you know that exemplifies faith and is strong in the Lord, and I can assure you they have these times in their lives too. But like Job, we trust in the midst of the unknown. We do not give in to the pain and allow it to pull us from God. So like him we exclaim in the worst possible of times: “The Lord gives and the Lord takes away, blessed be the name of the Lord.”
O Lord God, creator and sustainer of all things, give me strength in my trials and give me peace in my suffering and give me joy every day. I know that you are always faithful and you will never allow me to face anything alone. You have blessed me so wonderfully in so many ways in my life and whatever trials I may face are small in comparison. I know there are those who are facing persecution for their faith and I ask you to be with them. I pray in Jesus name.
Robert
