Verse of the Day 1/3

Verse of the Day 1/3

 

Psalm 108:1-2  My heart, O God, is quiet and confident, all because of you.
Now I can sing my song with passionate praises!
Awake, O my soul, with the music of his splendor.
² Arise, my soul, and sing his praises!
I will awaken the dawn with my worship,
greeting the daybreak with my songs of light.  The Passion Translation (TPT)

 

For many of us, we've just come through one of the most trying year in our lives and we are happy to put it behind us.  Looking forward, we realize that we can't make it on our own and if we are to survive another year anywhere close to what 2020 was, we will need God's help, His love, His mercy to make it through.

 

Today's Psalm came up in my daily reading in the Psalms.  It is attributed to King David, a man after God's own heart, and the heading for it in The Passion Translation is "A Prayer for God's Help".  David knew all about the ups and downs and the trials and battles of life.  Notice how he begins this prayer, he admits to God that his heart is quiet, it is at peace and he is confident, not in himself but in the Lord.  Other translations say that "my heart is steadfast".  His faith in God is rock solid.  Oh that this could be said of us coming out of 2020.

 

Most mornings, I am up before the dawn and that is when I have my quiet times in His Word and in prayer.  While I don't play the flute, or any other instrument for that matter, I can sing in my heart and quite often a hymn will come to mind as I read and pray.  Heading into 2021 may prayer for you that you will set time aside for the Lord "before dawn" or at any designated part of the day, to praise, seek and worship Him, and pray for His help for the day, week, month and year.

 

The hymn that came to my mind this morning was "O God Our Help in Ages Past".  Read it, sing it aloud or in your heart if you know it as a prayer for God's help today.

 

O God, our help in ages past,
Our hope for years to come,
Our shelter from the stormy blast,
And our eternal home:

 

Benearth the shadow of thy throne,
Thy saints have dwelt secure;
Sufficient is thine arm alone,
And our defense is sure.

 

Before the hills in order stood,
Or earth received her frame,
From everlasting thou art God,
To endless years the same.

 

A thousand ages in thy sight
Are like an evening gone;
Short as the watch that ends the night
Before the rising sun.

 Read the passage below, may we be confident that "with God we shall do valiantly" this year.

--   In Christ,  Mike    Folllow the Verse of the Day blog at http://mikesvotd.blogspot.com  Ephesians 1:7 In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins,  in accordance with the riches of God's grace.  NIV

 

Psalm 108 English Standard Version (ESV)

With God We Shall Do Valiantly

A Song. A Psalm of David.

108 My heart is steadfast, O God!
    I will sing and make melody with all my being!^[a]
2 Awake, O harp and lyre!
    I will awake the dawn!
³ I will give thanks to you, O Lord, among the peoples;
    I will sing praises to you among the nations.
⁴ For your steadfast love is great above the heavens;
    your faithfulness reaches to the clouds.

⁵ Be exalted, O God, above the heavens!
    Let your glory be over all the earth!
⁶ That your beloved ones may be delivered,
    give salvation by your right hand and answer me!

 

--   In Christ,  Mike    Folllow the Verse of the Day blog at http://mikesvotd.blogspot.com  Ephesians 1:7 In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins,  in accordance with the riches of God's grace.  NIV

Verse of the Day 1/2

Verse of the Day 1/2      

 

Zephaniah 3:17  For the Lord your God is living among you.
    He is a mighty savior.
He will take delight in you with gladness.
    With his love, he will calm all your fears.
    He will rejoice over you with joyful songs."  New Living Translation (NLT)

 

As I was coming to the end of my reading in the Old Testament for the year I read today's verse and what struck me was the thought that "He will rejoice over you with joyful songs."  Step back and think about that.  The Creator and Lord of the universe delights in you and "will rejoice over you".  We may not often hear someone singing songs of rejoicing over us, perhaps we hear it on our birthday when family and friends sing "Happy birthday".  This is sung once a year, but the Lord can rejoice over us any day of the year as we serve Him and are faithful to Him.

 

The other thing about having others singing happy birthday to us is that it is normally associated with gifts or at least best wishes for the one who is being honored with the song.  Think of how happy you feel when you give gifts to your kids or grandkids, especially when it is something that they've been longing for.  The gifts are given without demands and the receiver of the gifts is not laboring for the gifts, otherwise they would not be gifts.

 

John Piper writes, "God is not looking for people to work for Him, so much as He is looking for people who will let Him work for them…. The gospel commands us to give up and hang out a help-wanted sign (this is the basic meaning of prayer). Then the gospel promises that God will work for us if we do. He will not surrender the glory of being the Giver."

 

As we continue into this new year, may we daily be aware that He is living among us and in us. That He is a mighty Savior who has redeemed us, delight in us, calms our fears, and rejoices over us.

 

Lord of Eternity
Blessed is the man
Who walks in Your favor
Who loves all Your words
And hides them like treasure
In the darkest place
Of his desperate heart,
They are a light
A strong, sure light.

 

Lord of Eternity,
Father of mercy,
Look on my fainting soul.
Keeper of all the stars,
Friend of the poorest heart
Touch me and make me whole.

 

If You are my defender,
Who is against me?
No one can trouble or harm me
If You are my strength .
All I ask, all I desire
Is to live in Your house all my days.  (Lord of Eternity – Fernando Ortega)

--   In Christ,  Mike    Folllow the Verse of the Day blog at http://mikesvotd.blogspot.com  Ephesians 1:7 In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins,  in accordance with the riches of God's grace.  NIV

 

Zephaniah 3:14-17 New King James Version (NKJV)

Joy in God's Faithfulness

¹⁴ Sing, O daughter of Zion!
Shout, O Israel!
Be glad and rejoice with all your heart,
O daughter of Jerusalem!
¹⁵ The Lord has taken away your judgments,
He has cast out your enemy.
The King of Israel, the Lord, is in your midst;
You shall ^[a]see disaster no more.

¹⁶ In that day it shall be said to Jerusalem:
"Do not fear;
Zion, let not your hands be weak.
¹⁷ The Lord your God in your midst,
The Mighty One, will save;
He will rejoice over you with gladness,
He will quiet you with His love,
He will rejoice over you with singing."

Verse of the Day 1/1

 

Verse of the Day 1/1

 

Ecclesiastes 11:6  Plant your seed in the morning and keep busy all afternoon, for you don't know if profit will come from one activity or another—or maybe both. New Living Translation (NLT)

 

Happy New Year everyone!

 

I ended the year yesterday reading in the "Wisdom Literature" in Psalms through Ecclasiastes in Ecclesiastes 11.  It struck me that it would be fitting to look at to begin the new year.  In today's society it is probably a small percentage of the population that are actually farmers and the verse can easily be lost on the rest of us.  All of us are familiar with images of the cornfields of late summer or the amber waves of grain in the wheat fields here in the U.S.  These don't just happen randomly.  The farmer must have tilled the land and planted the seed early in the year and those images are the result of his work throughout the year (along with God's sending the rain and providing the sun.)

 

So it is with us spiritually as we head into the new year.  If we are to bear spiritual fruit, seeds will need to be planted earlier in the year.  Perhaps it starts today with beginning a Bible reading plan or deciding to start a prayer journal.  We don't know now where this will lead us, but we can trust that with the Lord's leading, like sending sunshine and rain to the farm fields, so He will do with the events of our lives. 

 

 

David Jeremiah writes, "Now is the very time to draw near to your God. The longer you wait, the less you will desire Him, and the more elusive He will prove to be. Now is the time when you will make the pivotal decisions on which your whole future will turn. Please don't make them without your Lord."  

 

Get with God.

Get with Him daily as you spend time together.

Get with Him through His Word.

Get with Him in service and with His other children.

Get with Him and honor Him.

 

Don't let God appear to be "elusive".  Seek Him early, seek Him often, day by day and see what the year will bring as a harvest for Him.  I'll close with the words to the Fernando Ortega song, "Give Me Jesus".

 

In the morning, when I rise
In the morning, when I rise
In the morning, when I rise, give me Jesus

Give me Jesus
Give me Jesus
You can have all this world
But give me Jesus

 

And when I am alone
Oh, and when I am alone
And when I am alone, give me Jesus

Give me Jesus
Give me Jesus
You can have all this world
But give me Jesus

 

And when I come to die
Oh, and when I come to die
And when I come to die, give me Jesus

Give me Jesus
Give me Jesus
You can have all this world
You can have all this world
You can have all this world
But give me Jesus

--   In Christ,  Mike    Folllow the Verse of the Day blog at http://mikesvotd.blogspot.com  Ephesians 1:7 In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins,  in accordance with the riches of God's grace.  NIV

Ecclesiastes 11 New King James Version (NKJV)

The Value of Diligence

11 Cast your bread upon the waters,
For you will find it after many days.
² Give a serving to seven, and also to eight,
For you do not know what evil will be on the earth.

³ If the clouds are full of rain,
They empty themselves upon the earth;
And if a tree falls to the south or the north,
In the place where the tree falls, there it shall lie.
⁴ He who observes the wind will not sow,
And he who regards the clouds will not reap.

⁵ As you do not know what is the way of the ^[a]wind,
Or how the bones grow in the womb of her who is with child,
So you do not know the works of God who makes everything.
⁶ In the morning sow your seed,
And in the evening do not withhold your hand;
For you do not know which will prosper,
Either this or that,
Or whether both alike will be good.