Daily Devotionals
Daily Devotional: Psalms 102:23-28
Ps 102:23-28
In the course of my life, he broke my strength; he cut short my days. So, I said: "Do not take me away, O my God, in the midst of my days; your years go on through all generations. In the beginning you laid the foundations of the earth, and the heavens are the work of your hands. They will perish, but you remain; they will all wear out like a garment. Like clothing you will change them, and they will be discarded. But you remain the same, and your years will never end. The children of your servants will live in your presence; their descendants will be established before you."
James 5:16-18
Therefore, confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective. Elijah was a man just like us. He prayed earnestly that it would not rain, and it did not rain on the land for three and a half years. Again, he prayed, and the heavens gave rain, and the earth produced its crops.
There are times in my life that I relate to this Psalm because I feel that the Lord has broken my strength and cut my days short. In other words, my world has fallen apart, and it looked like there was nowhere to go, and all the options had been taken away. In the words of the old hymn: “Where could I go but to the Lord?” When things are at their worst, prayer is the only reasonable answer.
For Elijah, prayer was not a last resort. He lived in a wicked world – probably worse than any of us have ever seen. He was the “national preacher” for the Lord, but no one wanted to listen to him. On the one occasion that it seemed he was finally winning, and the people (even the King) had to admit that God is God and should be followed, the Queen swore that he would be killed that day.
Elijah was a man just like us. He got down in the dumps, filled with depression, and asked God to take his life. He felt like he was the only one left in all the land that still wanted to serve the Lord. He went out in the woods and sat down, waiting to die. But God had other plans for him. He was hungry and thirsty, so God fed him and gave him water to drink. Trusting in the Lord, he got up and went back to work, preaching and telling the people to repent and serve the Lord.
O Lord my God, I consider all your handiwork, the beauty of your creation, and I stand in awe of you, your wisdom, and your mighty power. Thank you for loving me and for being with me over the years of my life. Thank you for the godly parents to which I was born. Thank you for their efforts to teach me to want to serve you and to follow Jesus. Thank you for my wife and all the ways she has been a blessing to me. Thank you for all of my family. I pray in Jesus’ name.
Robert
