Year: 2022

“Oh that men would praise the LORD for His goodness, and for His wonderful works to the children of men!” Psalm‬ ‭107‬:‭21‬ ‭KJV. As the psalmist writes these verses he is showing a spiritual progression, which is repeated 4 times in this psalm. Verse 20 tells of their troubles and how they cry unto God. Next, he tells how God sends healing and deliverance. And the result is, they have a duty to give God praise for all of His goodness and the great things He does! This is one of the biggest areas of failure for most believers. We are quick to cry out to God when we are in need. Every day we are asking Him to help us and move in situations that are important to us. And how faithful God is to hear and answer prayer! How bountifully He pours out His blessings upon us. But then, we seldom follow through as scripture reminds us. We forget that God is deserving of our praise. We become so caught up in the next problem, that we lose sight of this truth, that GOD IS WORTHY OF AND DESIRES OUR PRAISE! May God help us to understand that we should give Him thanks and praise every day of our lives. He desires our praise because He knows we need to praise Him and it is good for our souls. It says to Him that we are grateful children and do not take for granted His goodness to us. “Oh that men would praise the Lord!”

“He sent His Word, and healed them, and delivered them from their destructions.” Psalm‬ ‭107‬:‭20‬ ‭KJV‬‬. As the psalmist was inspired to write these words, no doubt he was thinking of the written Word of God which they were so blessed to have, which probably consisted of only the first 5 books of the Old Testament. But if he could have known these words were also prophetic and pointing to the coming of Jesus the Messiah, his soul would have rejoiced even more. We know that Jesus is the Word (Logos) that was in the beginning with God. John 1:14 tells us, “And the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us”. So when God the Father sent His only begotten Son, He was also sending His Word to bring healing to this sin ravaged world! One of the beautiful Christmas hymns, ‘O Holy Night’ says, “Long lay the world in sin and error pining. Till He appeared and the soul felt its worth. A thrill of hope the weary soul rejoices, For yonder breaks a new and glorious morn!” And this is true for every soul that will look in faith to Jesus Christ, Who is the Word become flesh. Because of Him, we can experience healing for our souls and deliverance from our sins! Through His atoning work, we can have hope even as we live in this sin darkened world. Thank God, in Jesus Christ, we can be delivered and have a new and glorious morning.

“Then they cry unto the LORD in their trouble, and He saveth them out of their distresses.”Psalm‬ ‭107‬:‭19‬ ‭KJV‬‬. One of the greatest privileges we have as children of God is to be able to cry out in prayer to our Father in Heaven. As we live in the midst of this dark and sinful world, there are reasons every day for us to pray. Sometimes we imagine when things are going well, that we don’t need to pray as much. Prosperity often causes people to slack off in their prayer lives. But in reality, it is not prosperity, but pride that hinders our prayer lives. It is only the humble soul who cries out to God. When we are humble before God, we realize our need of Him every moment of every day. Even if we are healthy and our physical needs supplied, we still understand we are nothing without Him and can do nothing good without Him. And the good news is, when we humbly lift our prayer to God, He will hear and answer! He will save us out of our distress. This is part of what led to the coming of Jesus Christ into this world. God had a remnant who were crying out to Him. There were faithful souls like Simeon and Anna (in Luke 2), who kept crying out to God for deliverance for their people from the awful distress of sin. And praise God, He sent Jesus to be the Deliverer that every soul needed.

“My meditation of Him shall be sweet: I will be glad in the LORD.”
‭‭Psalm‬ ‭104‬:‭34‬ ‭KJV‬‬. In the original language, the phrase ‘shall be sweet’ means that it will be well pleasing unto God. But it is also clear, from the second part of the verse, that the psalmist also found great joy in meditating upon God. This is one of the wonderful things about a relationship based in love. It is sweet to our souls when we spend time thinking about our gracious Lord. And it is sweet to Him to know that our thoughts are upon Him. When we truly love someone, our minds go often to them. And certainly this should be the experience of God’s children with our Lord. But with our lives so crowded today and with so many distractions upon our mind, we need to set aside time for this purpose. We need to meditate on God on a regular basis. We need to establish a disciplined lifestyle that provides consistent time where we can pull away from the world and turn our attention to our God. And let’s notice, the sweetness of this time is not about doctrines and the many things God does for us. The sweetness is in Jesus Christ Himself! He is the Lover of our souls. Let us make time for Him daily and it will be a sweet time for our Lord and for us.

“And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.” Philippians‬ ‭4‬:‭7‬ ‭KJV‬‬. When we are faithful to ‘keep our focus on God’, then we will discover that His peace becomes like a spiritual fortress. His peace safeguards our mind and spirit. It protects us from the assaults of the evil one. It is a peace so great that even those who enjoy it cannot fully understand it. And what a joy this is, to have this peace that passes all understanding! Thank God, this is still the heritage of God’s children! We can have peace in the midst of the storm. We can have peace in our souls even while the enemy comes against us. We may suffer loss and human separation, but His peace will hold us up. We may walk through dark valleys and face the fires of persecution, but God’s peace is able to keep our hearts secure! A little over a hundred years ago, a minister named W.D. Cornell wrote the beloved hymn “Wonderful Peace”. Verse three says: “I am resting tonight in this wonderful peace, resting sweetly in Jesus’ control; For I’m kept from all danger by night and by day, and His glory is flooding my soul. Peace, peace, wonderful peace”. By God’s grace, let us rest our souls in Jesus’ control. And His peace will keep us.

“Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on Thee: because he trusteth in Thee.” Isaiah‬ ‭26‬:‭3‬ ‭KJV‬‬. One of the things that our adversary hates is when he sees that we have true peace in Jesus Christ. It has always been satan’s purpose to destroy peace. He is the author of all the war and hatred that has ever existed among men. And so, he is always active trying to disturb this blessed peace we have in Jesus. This is why he is continually working to distract our minds and get us to focus our attention on the wrong things. He knows that if he can cause us to become consumed with the negative news and circumstances that are around us, then he will rob us of our peace. For this reason, we must make a determined effort to keep our minds stayed on God and the good things He has for us. While it is true we need to be aware of needs around us, as well as the conditions of our society, yet we must be careful lest these things overwhelm our minds. Sometimes carrying these burdens can cause us to become overly anxious and we will lose our peace. But God is reminding us in these words, that our supreme focus should always be on Him! Yes, we see the great needs of souls, but looking to Jesus we are confident that He is able and willing to meet every need. Let’s keep our focus on Him Who is able to do all things.

“Glory to God in the highest, And on earth peace, good will toward men.” Luke‬ ‭2‬:‭14‬ ‭KJV‬‬. As the angelic choir proclaimed these words at the birth of Jesus, they were announcing God’s desire for all mankind. God wants peace on earth. God desires peace among men. And God wants each individual to know true peace in their heart. Because sin had broken that peace and made it beyond man’s reach, God Himself was making a way for peace to be restored. And we know that the way to peace is only through Jesus Christ as Saviour and Lord! But peace is not about the baby Jesus in a manger. Peace will not come merely by celebrating the things related to His birth. Real peace comes only as we place faith in His atoning work and experience the peace of sins forgiven! And that peace is maintained only in an abiding, personal relationship with Christ. It is sad today, that so many in religion have a false peace because of doctrines of men. They continue to live in sin and live selfish lives and yet mistakenly believe that everything is fine with their soul. The prophet Jeremiah told of those who cried “Peace, peace when there was no peace”. Let us not settle for the false peace of religion. By God’s grace, let’s experience the true peace that only Jesus gives.

“These things I have spoken unto you, that in Me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world.” John‬ ‭16‬:‭33‬ ‭KJV‬‬. One of the things that most everyone seeks for is peace inside. Our souls were created to desire and need peace. And because of this, people seek in many different ways to find peace. All kinds of religious systems have been developed by people seeking inward peace. Desperate souls look to drugs and alcohol to try to find a moment of peace. But Jesus makes very clear in this passage that the only place we can find true, spiritual peace is IN HIM. That is why He has given us His Holy Word. That is why He spoke all those wonderful words of life. He wants us to know that there is real peace IN HIM! And He wants us to experience this deep, settled peace IN HIM. People often wonder why Jesus spoke such severe words at times. They wonder why He called out sin and exposed the hypocrisy of religion. But He did these things because He knew that sin and hypocrisy are obstacles to peace. He knew that religion would never bring real peace. So, it was in love that He denounced sin and called us to repentance. It was in love that He called us to a truly consecrated life that follows Him. By God’s grace, let us abide in Christ and experience this wonderful peace He offers to all.

Tuesday Devo
“Now ye are clean through the Word which I have spoken unto you.” John‬ ‭15‬:‭3‬ ‭KJV‬‬. Every child of God knows that it is only the shed blood of Jesus and His atoning death that brings forgiveness and cleansing from the guilt of sin. (1 John 1:7) But do we realize how much cleansing our mind and spirit also need? Do we understand that Jesus wants every area of our heart and life to be cleansed for His glory? Here Jesus explains, that it is His Word that has the power to cleanse these areas of our lives. Too often today, God’s people learn of the initial cleansing, but then they don’t follow on in God’s Word to discover the power God has invested in His Word to cleanse all of our life. For many who sit in church, the Word of God does not have an important place in their daily lives. But when we begin to open our hearts to God’s Holy Word on a daily basis, we will begin to experience the sanctifying influence it has on our life. And thank God, the more of His Word we receive, the more it will be working to cleanse our life. The more its power will become effective in us to keep us clean. How we should praise God for His precious Word! How we should hunger for His Words of life! Ephesians 5:26 reminds us, “That He might sanctify and cleanse it (the church) with the washing of water by the Word.”

“I am the Vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in Me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without Me ye can do nothing.” ‭‭John‬ ‭15‬:‭5‬ ‭KJV‬‬. In this great parable about the ‘Vine and the branches’, Jesus is making very clear where true spiritual fruitfulness comes from. It is not from our natural intellect or abilities. It is not from our physical strength nor any resources we have on a human level. Our only hope of living a spiritually fruitful life comes from an abiding personal relationship with Jesus Christ. Jesus emphasizes this by telling us, “without Me, you can do nothing”. But do we really believe that we are absolutely helpless without Him? Do we agree that, when it comes to spiritual life, there is not one good or profitable thing we can do on our own? This is difficult for human pride to accept. We like to consider ourselves resourceful and self sufficient. But all of that attitude must be rejected when it comes to our spiritual life! The only way we can ever become spiritually fruitful and glorify God is when we humble ourselves before Him and accept our real condition. We can’t overcome sin without Jesus. We can’t resist temptation without Jesus. We can’t do even one good work that God approves of, without Jesus. Because He is the True Vine and we are branches, everything in spiritual life depends upon our connection to Him.