Daily Devotionals
Daily Devotional: Psalms 119:49-56
Ps 119:49-56 Zayin
Remember your word to your servant, for you have given me hope. My comfort in my suffering is this: Your promise preserves my life. The arrogant mock me without restraint, but I do not turn from your law. I remember your ancient laws, O LORD, and I find comfort in them. Indignation grips me because of the wicked, who have forsaken your law. Your decrees are the theme of my song wherever I lodge. In the night I remember your name, O LORD, and I will keep your law. This has been my practice: I obey your precepts.
2 Cor 12:7-9
To keep me from becoming conceited because of these surpassingly great revelations, there was given me a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me. Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. But he said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me.
Trusting in the Lord is the key to happiness. It is our faith in Jesus that gives us reason to live and a path to follow. No matter what happens in our lives, we can rest in the assurance that Jesus is near and he will find the way for us to make it through our trial. He has all power, all authority, and there is nothing that can take us from his love or his protection. The name of Jesus sounds like music.
It is no wonder that Paul says we are saved by faith! Every part of his life was built on his complete trust in God and in Jesus as the Messiah, the Savior. As the years went by, Paul’s faith grew stronger and stronger because with each passing year came new trials and new persecutions. But with every hardship, came the power of the grace of Jesus in his life. Not only is salvation by faith but so is life.
And like the Psalmist, Paul realized that the more he trusted God and the more faith he had in Jesus, the more he wanted to do his will and follow his word. He understood the history of Israel and how they had rejected the goodness of God by their rebellion and failure to keep his word. Faith comes from hearing the word of God and our relationship is from faith unto faith, that is, faith first to last.
Lord God, help me trust you more so that I will be more determined to do your will in all things. Help me know that true obedience is faith in action as I allow you to mold me and my heart, but also guide me in all I say and in all my actions. Use me to help others as I seek to serve you. At this time of year there are so many who are graduating and are moving from one stage of life to another, so I ask you to be with each of them that they remember that serving you and not themselves is the most important decision they will make in life. I pray in Jesus name.
Robert
