Through the Bible - 1 Kings 15-16, John 1
Good morning,
For today's devotional I thought we'd spend one more day looking at prayer.
11 times in the book of Psalms you will find the statement "the God of Jacob". I was talking with a friend yesterday of how this always reminds me of Genesis 32 when Jacob struggled/wrestled with God all night and would not let him go until he blessed him.
When you look at the characters of the Bible, Old Testament and New, they didn't live by the "name it and claim it" mentality. Jacob, David, the prophets, disciples, and apostles struggled with God as well. But it was through this that they truly found Him, found joy, and peace not just temporary happiness.
Today's verse comes from Psalm 146, the last of the Psalms to mention the God of Jacob.
Ps 146:5 Happy is he who has the God of Jacob for his help,
Whose hope is in the Lord his God, NKJV
Charles Spurgeon wrote, "Heaped up is his happiness. He has happiness indeed: the true and real delight is with him. The God of Jacob is the great God of the covenant, the God of wrestling prayer, the God of the tried believer; He is the only living and true God."
What pictures come to your mind as you read that. Look back to Genesis 12 where have the beginning of the Abrahamic covenant:
Gen 12:2 I will make you a great nation;
I will bless you
And make your name great;
And you shall be a blessing. NKJV
God did truly bless, but it wasn't easy. The lives of the people in Hebrews 11 were the lives of people that remained dependent on God, who held on, who wrestled with God.
But don't miss this in Gen. 12:2. "I will bless you..... and you will be a blessing". Through God's grace we are blessed when we cry out "Abba Father" (Romans 8) and it is only through Christ and His enabling that we can truly be a blessing. (I won't print it, but you can sing the words of make "Make Me a Blessing" here.)
Read through this psalm today. There is so much there to rejoice in, to pray for, and to look forward to.
Jer 17:7 "Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord,
And whose hope is the Lord.
8 For he shall be like a tree planted by the waters,
Which spreads out its roots by the river,
And will not fear when heat comes;
But its leaf will be green,
And will not be anxious in the year of drought,
Nor will cease from yielding fruit. NKJV
In Christ,
Mike
mikevw@bellsouth.net
Ps 146:1-147:1
The Happiness of Those Whose Help Is the Lord
146 Praise the Lord!
Praise the Lord, O my soul! 2 While I live I will praise the Lord;I will sing praises to my God while I have my being.
3 Do not put your trust in princes,Nor in a son of man, in whom there is no help. 4 His spirit departs, he returns to his earth;In that very day his plans perish.
5 Happy is he who has the God of Jacob for his help,Whose hope is in the Lord his God, 6 Who made heaven and earth,The sea, and all that is in them;Who keeps truth forever, 7 Who executes justice for the oppressed,Who gives food to the hungry.The Lord gives freedom to the prisoners.
8 The Lord opens the eyes of the blind;The Lord raises those who are bowed down;The Lord loves the righteous. 9 The Lord watches over the strangers;He relieves the fatherless and widow;But the way of the wicked He turns upside down.
10 The Lord shall reign forever — Your God, O Zion, to all generations.
Praise the Lord!
NKJV
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