Daily Devotionals
Daily Devotional: Psalms 123:1-4
Ps 123:1-4
I lift up my eyes to you, to you whose throne is in heaven. As the eyes of slaves look to the hand of their master, as the eyes of a maid look to the hand of her mistress, so our eyes look to the LORD our God, till he shows us his mercy. Have mercy on us, O LORD, have mercy on us, for we have endured much contempt. We have endured much ridicule from the proud, much contempt from the arrogant.
1 John 2:15-17
Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For everything in the world-the cravings of the flesh, the lust of his eyes and the boasting of what he has and does-comes not from the Father but from the world. The world and its desires pass away, but the man who does the will of God lives forever.
We must put our trust in God. Even as the slave is dependent on his master for all he has, even his daily food, so we are dependent on God who provides us richly with all things to enjoy. He gives us the very air that we breathe and he sends the rain and holds it back when best. We enjoy the sunshine on other days, so we should acknowledge that the warmth and light come from the Father too. All we have and all we are is by the grace of God who loves us and cares for us.
It is the realization of our total dependence that causes us to trust him more and more each day. The more grateful I am to him, the more I realize just how much he takes care of me and all that he provides for me. When we open our eyes to his providence, we see his working in our lives on a daily basis. So, the more grateful we are, the more we trust him and the more we trust him, the more we grow in gratitude. We love him because he loved us first. God is love.
By faith Noah… By faith Abraham… By faith Rahab… and by faith you and I can live our lives on a daily basis. Like the heroes of faith, we demonstrate our faith in him by submitting to his will and living for him. This faith is seeing the unseen and acting when it is contrary to what we think is best for us. But like Jesus, who kept entrusting himself to God, we pray: “not my will, but your will be done.”
O Lord God, giver of life and creator of all things, I am so thankful for your love and your care for me in more ways than I can even know. Thank you for the beauties of this earth and the changes of the seasons, for the birds that sing and the stars in the sky. You have taken me safely through some very rough times in my life, even when I did not know how I could possibly make it another day. You have given me what I need when I did not see any way for it to happen. Thank you for the many blessings you shower on me daily. I pray in the name of Jesus.
Robert
