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.
John 15:18-20
"If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first. If you belonged to the world, it would love you as its own. As it is, you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world. That is why the world hates you. Remember the words I spoke to you: 'No servant is greater than his master.' If they persecuted me, they will persecute you also. If they obeyed my teaching, they will obey yours also.
Life can be hard. Sometimes, just when we think it has hit the bottom, the whole sky falls in on us. When this happens, we can look up and we can see the Son shining on us and know that he will hold our hand until we finally get back on our feet. But we have to look up and fix our eyes on Jesus. This is not always easy for us to do. It takes faith to look up and even more faith to fix (firmly fix) our eyes on him. He will always be there, and he will aways help us when we trust him.
Let me tell you a preacher’s secret. Preachers have problems too. Preachers are people and they face temptations too, and not only face them, but too often give in to them. And then like a lot of other people, they often try to hide their sin. We (preachers) do not have all the right answers. We mess up. We make bad decisions. We say things that we should not say. We are not perfect people.
So, each day we all must begin by asking God to help us live this day for him, to his glory, and be what he wants us to be today. Pray. Trust God. Seek to obey his word to the best of our ability. Remember, Jesus was tempted, and he had problems, but he would always turn to the Father in prayer and trust him. As we do this, the blood of Jesus will continue to cleanse us from all sin. We will be right with God!
O Lord God, help me be filled with your love and your compassion so that when I see others in their failures and problems, I try to help and not be judgmental or think that I am above them. I know that I am what I am in your sight, only because of your grace and your forgiveness. Help me use all that has happened to me in my past to help others draw closer to you and to not ever give up on you. Thank you for all you do for me every day. O Lord, help me make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace. I pray in the name of Jesus.
Robert
