Devotional Thoughts

Psalm 39:7    "And now, Lord, what wait I for? my hope is in thee." It seems both the 38th and 39th Psalm were written at a time when David was feeling very low and was expecting the heavy hand of the Lord to be brought down upon him. Have you ever felt that way? I surely have. It is a terrible feeling to think that God is about to bring down His wrath upon you. These two Psalms speak of David's sorrow and seeking repentance in his life. May I say that repentance is a necessary thing for all of God's children; yet, it is not always an easy place to attain. There are stages of repentance, but self-denial is required in order to get to the very heart of the matter. It isn't just a matter of saying, "I'm sorry." We all know there are different reasons for saying those two words, but more times than not, it is because we are sorry that we got caught. David was seeking the true depth of repentance as he wrote these words. In the 5th verse, David came to t...

Romans 7:7-9     “What shall we say then?   Is   the law sin? God forbid. Nay, I had not known sin, but by the law: for I had not known lust, except the law had said, Thou shalt not covet. But sin, taking occasion by the commandment, wrought in me all manner of concupiscence. For without the law sin   was   dead. For I was alive without the law once: but when the commandment came, sin revived, and I died.” When we think of the doctrine of God’s sovereign grace, we sometimes tend to feel that the law is somehow bad; that it is our enemy. The law is not our enemy, but we are often enemies of the law. God gave us His law for our benefit. Even the very first law that God gave to Adam was for Adam’s good. God is not the author of sin. He did not force Adam to eat the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. God’s pronouncement of death upon Adam if he ate from the tree was not so much a condemnation as it was a statement of consequence...

Psalm 37:7     "Rest in the LORD, and wait patiently for him: fret not thyself because of him who prospereth in his way, because of the man who bringeth wicked devices to pass." In this journey toward peace and contentment in the Lord, we have learned that we must trust (have confidence in) the Lord's wisdom and ability. We must delight in the Lord which means we are to be flexible in forsaking our own way and following the path of righteousness in which our Lord leads us. Friday, we saw that we are not to hold anything back; rather, we are to fully commit our ways unto Him. When we do those things, by the help of the Holy Spirit, we can find rest to our weary souls. Jesus said, "Come unto me all ye that labour and are heavy laden and I WILL give you rest." But when we come to Him, we are to lay all our hesitations to the side and we are to place our doubts and fears into His hands. We are to come by faith, believing our God is able to perform that which He has ...

Romans 7:1-3     “Know ye not, brethren, (for I speak to them that know the law,) how that the law hath dominion over a man as long as he liveth? For the woman which hath an husband is bound by the law to   her   husband so long as he liveth; but if the husband be dead, she is loosed from the law of   her   husband. So then if, while   her   husband liveth, she be married to another man, she shall be called an adulteress: but if her husband be dead, she is free from that law; so that she is no adulteress, though she be married to another man.” In the previous chapter, Paul tells us that he “speaks after the manner of men.” He uses natural things to give us a glimpse into spiritual things by the leadership of the Spirit. We know from the tone of Paul’s letters that he had a deep understanding of the grace of God. He understood that grace surpassed the law, but (speaking after the manner of men) he used the law to teach the principles...

Psalm 37:5    "Commit thy way unto the LORD; trust also in him; and he shall bring it to pass." This morning we see the third step to contentment in life. We were first reminded to simply trust the Lord's wisdom, power, grace, mercy and love. Then we saw the importance of delighting ourselves in the Lord. That is to say, we are to be soft and pliable in His hands, yielding to His will instead of insisting on our own way. Today, we see the word, "commit" as in staying with the first two steps. We must be constant in trust and delight as we walk by the side of the Lord. Have you ever been a little leary of putting your weight on anything? I'm thinking of a swinging bridge that you have not tested to see just how strong it is. The first thing we do is to place one foot on it, but not our entire weight. We test it and put a little more weight as we feel it is able to hold us up. We are very hesitant to put our entire weight on that bridge or even the first board...

Romans 6:19-23     “I speak after the manner of men because of the infirmity of your flesh: for as ye have yielded your members servants to uncleanness and to iniquity unto iniquity; even so now yield your members servants to righteousness unto holiness. For when ye were the servants of sin, ye were free from righteousness. What fruit had ye then in those things whereof ye are now ashamed? for the end of those things   is   death. But now being made free from sin, and become servants to God, ye have your fruit unto holiness, and the end everlasting life. For the wages of sin   is   death; but the gift of God   is   eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.” In speaking of spiritual things, we sometimes have to use temporal comparisons when speaking of the eternal majesty of God. This is because our human nature is weak. We do not like to see ourselves as weak creatures. It goes against the grain to admit that we are not power...