Week 20 Devotions

May 14 - - We have a tendency to look for our sufficiency within ourselves or even within others. We often talk about trusting God, but when it comes down to it, we place a lot of trust in what we can do for ourselves. David got it right when he said, “all human help is useless. With God’s help we will do mighty things” (Psalm 108:12&13). “If the Lord had not been on our side when people rose up against us, they would have swallowed us alive because of their burning anger against us.....Yes, the raging waters of their fury would have overwhelmed our very lives.....Our help is from the Lord who made the heavens and the earth!” (124:2&3,5,8). In the New Testament, Jesus said, “without me, you can do nothing” (John 15:5). And Paul wrote, “I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength” (Philippians 4:13). Our strength, our wisdom, our hope, and our peace all come from the Lord. David considered himself blessed in many ways and his gratitude toward God compelled him to live a life of praise. “Praise the Lord, I tell myself, and never forget the good things He does for me. He forgives all my sins and heals all my diseases. He ransoms me from death and surrounds me with love and tender mercies. He fills my life with good things” (103:2-5a). How often do we praise the Lord? Is it only when He has given us what we wanted? Is it only in those times we feel He has rescued us from our enemies? It is good to give praise to God in all our circumstances. Though they were innocent of any wrongdoing, Paul and Silas were arrested, stripped of their clothes, severely beaten with wooden rods, and placed in an inner dungeon with their feet clamped in stocks (Acts 16:22-24). But, instead of complaining, instead of getting mad at God, and instead of questioning God’s sovereignty, the two were praying and singing hymns of praise to God. Their example spoke volumes to their fellow prisoners about the power of the God they worshipped. May our example shine as brightly as theirs. May 17 - - Look out the window of a high-rise building. Gaze out the window of an airplane and look as far as the eye can see. Ride in a spaceship, climb out of the atmosphere and look back at the earth. Cast a glance at all the stars. What do you see that doesn’t belong to God? Is there any-thing your eyes can behold that isn’t God’s? The answer is, “no.” “All the animals of the forest are mine,” He says. “I own the cattle on a thousand hills. Every bird of the mountains and all the animals of the field belong to me....all the world is mine and everything in it” (Psalm 50:10-12). “’The silver is mine, and the gold is mine,’ says the Lord Almighty” (Haggai 2:8). “The earth is the Lord’s and everything in it” (Psalm 24:1). So, what can we bring this God who has it all? What gift could possibly please the One who already owns everything? Perhaps, we can best answer that question by asking another one. What is it we want out of a relationship? Friendship? Honesty? Faithfulness? Or, lip service? Meaningless motions? Do we really want things out of a relationship? Or, do we want a person’s undying commitment and love? Why would it be any different with God? God is saying, “I don’t need anything from you because it all belongs to me, anyway. What I really want from you is your gratitude. What would really please me is your undying faithfulness. When you tell me you love me, you prove it by the way you live, by your obedience to me” (Psalm 50:14&15). God doesn’t want a bunch of meaningless sacrifices. It doesn’t bring God a great deal of pleasure for us to recite or sing some words we really don’t mean. “The sacrifice you want is a broken spirit. A broken and repentant heart, O God, you will not despise” (Psalm 51:17; 34:18). What God wants from us are living sacrifices (Romans 12:1), people who don’t resemble this world because we are so in love with God we resemble the One who sent His Son as a sacrifice and as an example. When one considers all that God has done, is doing, and will do for us, that seems like a very reason-able request. What kind of sacrifice would you prefer to give God? One that costs you little, or the kind that costs you much? The degree to which we sacrifice, is the degree to which we grow close to Him. When David had sinned against God by demanding a census be taken of his fighting men (II Samuel 24; I Chronicles 21), his sin cost the lives of 70,000 Israelites (I Chron. 21:14). When David prepared to offer a sacrifice to God for his sin, a man named Araunah was prepared to give David all he needed to come before God. But, David’s response was, “I insist on buying it, for I cannot present burnt offerings to the Lord my God that cost me nothing” (II Sam.24:24; I Chron.21:24). Have you sacrificed anything in your life to demonstrate the depth of your love for God?