Sunday, January 14, 2007

Monday Morning Devotions

Psalm 23:16- "Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life; and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever."(NKJV)
Like the birds of the air that neither sow nor reap, sheep rely on others for provision without a thought as to whether this protection will always be there. David invites us to be as these sheep; we can chose for ourselves whether we will live under God's protection or not.

v2-3-"He makes", "He leads", "He restores" FOR HIS NAME'S SAKE! Our loving and trusting in Him gives us a testimony of His goodness.

We are not kept from evil times, but He leads us through them. I walk through the valley of the shadow of death of my own volition, for the Lord leads me to do so. I have chosen not to fear, because I have chosen to trust.

v1-3- The Lord protects me; He leads me where I need to go, to good places on the right paths.

v4- The Lord is with us to protect us in times of trial.

Today, since Jesus has risen from the dead and is now at the right hand of God the Father, Jesus and the Father sent the Holy Spirit to reside in us. This means that in times of trial and temptation, the Lord is not merely an outside force to assist us, but He guides us from within. As his Holy Spirit dwells within us, our souls are restored, and we are being conformed to the image of Jesus everyday.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Ex 4:12-"Now therefore, go, and I will be with your mouth and teach you what you shall say."(NKJV)
In the previous verse, God reminds Moses of the most basic of truths, that He, God, is the Creator. He created hearing, sight and speech. God can even make one slow of speech as Moses speak.

The Lord often tells us to do something and will not give us evidence beforehand that we will meet with success before we obey. No. We are to obey, and then we will see success as we obey, or after obedience.

Jesus told His diciples they would be brought before kings and priests to give a testimony. They were not to prepare themselves to speak beforehand, but what they were to say would be given them by the Lord at the right time. In Acts 4, Peter and John did not have to plan what they would say to the religious leaders. They were filled with the Holy Spirit and were given words to say.

The same principle applies to our witnessing today. We do not have to rely on preplanned responses, but we can rely on the Holy Spirit to give us the right response everytime. When we step out in faith, we find that the Holy Spirit will lead us to the right scriptures and will enable us to answer questions we never thought we could answer before. As we witness, the Lord brings to our rememberence things He has done for us, changes He has made in us, deliverences we may have overlooked or forgotten. And like Moses, as we step out in faith, we gain confidence in God to a greater degree so that we step out more and more in faith.

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