The Right Time

David did not have a calm and quiet life. It was a life that was filled with trials and tragedies, anxieties and anguish. He had moments of ecstasy followed by days of despair. He was honest with God and willing to admit his mistakes. Yet, he lived with the fact that forgiveness does remove the consequences of sin.

In Psalm 69 David cries out to God to “Save me, O God for the waters have come up to my neck.” And that was just the beginning of his list of problems. Listen to his prayer: “I am sinking to the depths of the mire...I am in deep waters and floods are overwhelming me...I am worn out in calling to You for help...my eyes fail because they cannot see You, O God, and I am forced to restore what I did not steal!” Could things be any worse?

The easy way out would have been for him to give up on God. He even said, “You, God know my folly and my guilt is not hidden from You.” Why care for me, God?

Why not cave in, David? Why not give up? Time after time you willingly made a mess of your life. God owes you nothing and now you are getting what you deserve!

But David did not give up on himself or God. He knew God loved him in spite of his wrong doings. So he prayed, “In the time of Your favor, in Your great love answer me with Your salvation!” My life is in Your hands!

David was often beaten down. But his faith always lifted him up. In spite of his sins and short comings he knew that God would not abandon him. God’s love is as eternal as He is.

Life is never hopeless as long as our hope is in God.

Prayer: Lord, give us patience as we place our hope in You to deliver us from any problem that would destroy us. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.

Scripture for Today: Psalm 69:13 But I pray to you, Lord, in the time of your favor; in your great love, O God, answer me with your sure salvation.

A Sure Source Of Strength

Are we failures if we fail or do we fail because we are failures?

All of us fail at one time or another or at one task or another. Not because we do not try – because trying is not the problem. It is because we do not make use of the help – or power – that’s available to us from God. God is ready to help us whenever we call upon Him. There are no preconditions.

Sometimes I think that David must have faced more problems than any other person in the Bible. But he knew what to do and where to go when things were about to destroy him. There were times when he was weak from suffering. There were days when doing what God called him to do caused some serious difficulties for him. When he faced these challenges, he knew where to go and what to do!

“Summon Your power, God; show us Your strength, God, as You have done before.”

God provides His strength when we suffer. Paul had no easy life. His life often seemed to go from bad to worse. But God said, “Paul, my grace will be sufficient for every problem you will ever face, my Son’s presence in every cell you occupy and My healing each time you are beaten.”

He gives us strength when He calls us to serve Him. An elderly lady was asked, “Where do you get all of your energy to help so many people?” “Well,” she said, “the first thing I do in the morning is to connect with God’s power through my time of prayer. As I put my hand in God’s hand, I can feel His strength pass into me. Then I can do whatever it is He leads me to do in His name!”

Prayer: Help us, Lord, to believe that no matter what problems we face we can do all things through Your power. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.

Scripture for Today: Psalm 68:28 Summon your power, God; show us your strength, our God, as you have done before.

Escaping Death

“The one inescapable fact of life is death. Yet, man usually refuses to face it,” wrote a psychologist recently. Then he quoted La Rochefoucauld, who said, “One cannot focus on either the sun or death for any length of time.”

But the Psalmist looked at death differently: “Our God is a God who saves; from the Sovereign Lord comes escape from death!”

Our God, through His Son Jesus Christ, not only saves and delivers us from sin and its consequences in this life but also after death. Salvation, for example, does not assure us of a life of prosperity and worldly success, a life free from sickness and suffering, a life that has no stress or conflict, a life that is all sunshine and no showers. But we do have the assurance of God’s forgiveness and the freedom from the law and its curse, from judgment and fear and guilt and certainly death.

And we do have the assurance of Christ’s presence in our lives that promises us that “He will never leave us nor forsake us,” be with us when we are sick and suffer, will give us His peace “that passes all understanding” when we are stressed and threatened by the challenges of life.

But ultimately and finally “from the Lord comes (our) escape from death.” Escape literally means exit. As Christians we can, with David, be assured that while there are many entrances to death – or many ways that we might die – our exit from death has been provided by God’s grace through Jesus Christ, our Savior.

This exit from death, however, is also our entrance into heaven.

Prayer: Thank You, Heavenly Father, for saving us and giving us peace and hope and the assurance of eternal life. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.

Scripture for Today: Psalm 68:20 Our God is a God who saves; from the Sovereign Lord comes escape from death.

Daily Deliverance

A preacher was complaining to a close friend, “Oh my, I have so many burdens to bear on behalf of others that I am ready to give up!”

“I am so very sorry,” replied his friend. “But wait until you hear what I discovered this morning. David left me a note in the Psalms that said, ‘Praise be to the Lord, to God our Savior, who daily bears our burdens.’ Why don’t you share them with the Lord rather than trying to carry the load by yourself?”

Often we feel crushed with the cares of life. There are times when we dwell on our defeats. We sometimes assume that our grief is so great that it will be with us for a lifetime. We expect to be overwhelmed with the life’s obstacles and even want to hang on to past failures and seem to take pride when life is unfair.

Could it be that we take pleasure in thinking we have more problems than anyone else in the world? Do we want to be known for having the longest list of unanswered prayers or for being forgotten and forsaken by God? Is it possible that we might even take great pleasure for what we do not have so we can be constant complainers?

Or do we need to change our view of God?

Remember the words of the Psalmist. “Praise be to the Lord, to God our Savior,” said David, “who daily bears our burdens!” Peter put it this way: “Cast all your cares upon Him because He cares for You.” And Jesus said, “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened and I will give you rest.” We can “cast or carry” – be “burdened or blest.”

Prayer: It’s really up to us, Lord. Either we take You at Your Word or reject Your offer to bear our burdens. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.

Scripture for Today: Psalm 68:19 Praise be to the Lord, to God our Savior, who daily bears our burdens. 

Announce The Word!

Years ago someone took a chisel and carved an image into a piece of wood. Then they took some dye, placed it on the raised image, and pressed it on a piece of parchment. Some believe that this was the day that printing was born.

In A.D. 779 the Chinese carved words and pictures by hand and invented “wood block printing.” Years later however, Johannes Gutenberg, a man from Germany, invented a machine with moveable type and called it a “printing press.”

It is not possible to estimate the power of the printed page. It has brought knowledge and insight since the fifteenth century. It has also corrupted minds and been used to lead people into paths of destruction.

Napoleon once said, “There are only two powers in the world: the sword and the pen, and in the end, the former is always conquered by the latter.”

Benjamin Franklin said, “Give me twenty-six lead soldiers and I will conquer the world.”

G. Christian Weiss, a missionary-statesman wrote, “The battle for the men’s minds will be won by the printer’s ink. Make no mistake about it!”

Many years ago David wrote, “The Lord announced the Word.”

Christians have no greater responsibility or obligation than to “announce” the Word of the Lord. Wherever we are and no matter what we are doing we must constantly and consciously “announce the Word” to the world.

Prayer: Help us to be faithful, Lord, to “announce” the Word in and through our lives whether by word or deed. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.

Scripture for Today: Psalm 68:11a The Lord announces the word…