Make His Desires, Your Own

Bible Reading:
Psalm 37:3-7a
"Trust in the Lord and do good, dwell in the land and cultivate faithfulness. Delight yourself in the Lord and He will give you the desires of your heart. Commit your way to the Lord, trust also in Him and He will do it. He will bring forth your righteousness as the light and your judgment as the noonday. Rest in the Lord and wait patiently for Him…"

Trusting God when we do not know what will happen next can be hard. These verses remind me that He has our best interests at heart. There are several instructions listed here:

1. Trust - Know that God is for you and will take care of you.
2. Do good - do what you know is right. Help others.
3. Dwell in the land - You are where you are for a reason.
4. Cultivate faithfulness - the translation for this also can mean "feed on faithfulness". A great picture of a farmer cultivating a crop, harvesting it, and feeding on it.
5. Delight yourself in the Lord - Focus on Him to find delight!

Then a promise: He will give you the desires of your heart. This doesn't mean that He will supply you with all of your wants, but that He will give of Himself and His desires. He will place His desires in your heart.

And one last instruction or command, commit your way to the Lord. Then He will show righteousness through you. Rest in Him - He is doing the work!

Be encouraged to know that God is on your side!

by Amy Warr
Camp Victory

Trust God Even At Your Darkest of Times

Scripture Reading: Psalm 31:19-24

Focus Verse: Psalm 31:21 “Praise be to the Lord, for He showed me the wonders of His love when I was in a city under siege.”

As I write this devotion the east coast of the United States is being pounded by a powerful hurricane storm.  We also have watched on the TV how this same storm earlier smashed into the Bahama Islands with winds as strong as 300 kilometers per hour.  Thousands of homes were destroyed and over 30 people lost their lives and they fear many more have been killed.  Many people in the Bahamas are living through the darkest hours of their lives. They have lost everything and some have even lost family members.  I heard the testimony of one man who said that the flood waters got so high in his house his wife was standing on a table in the kitchen and then she drowned.  He then had to swim out of his house into the raging wind and waves to a boat near his house to save his own life.

We may never encounter hardships like this, but we all go through difficult times in our lives. The weight of the world seems to be pressing on us from all sides, and we can't see our way out of that dark place.  In our scripture reading David felt the same way when he wrote “I’m in a city under siege.”  Let me tell you, no matter how dark the darkness, God’s love can always reach you even if you are facing death.  If you are a child of God you have nothing to fear.  The apostle Paul says it best in Romans 8:38-39  “I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present, nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”  Those are probably some of the most comforting verses in the Bible.  No matter what circumstance you find yourself in today.  

You can know that the peace and love of God can always find you even in the darkest of places.

Bobby Johnson
Interlocking Ministries

Bread of Life

Bible Reading: John 6:10-14; 24-27; 35

Focus Verse: John 6:35 "Jesus replied, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry again. Whoever believes in me will never be thirsty."

What is your definition of a miracle?  It is something that only God can do.  When God decides to make a miracle, he has a purpose.  In the scripture reading above, we read about how Jesus fed over 5,000 people by multiplying the food.  The people were happy to have been fed and followed Jesus.

The focus of this event isn't the food or that people were fed, but that Jesus was teaching something about Himself.  He is the "bread of life".  He is everything we need and more.  He wants us to hunger for Him and to seek Him first.  He wants us to be satisfied in Him.
 
The good things in your life are not for the sole purpose of your enjoyment, but that our Lord has decided to reveal Himself to you.  Over the next few days, challenge yourself to pray that God will open your eyes to the wonderful things around you and that you will learn more about who He is.  The more you know Jesus, the more satisfied you will become.

I am satisfied with Jesus.

Page Johnson
Interlocking Ministries

Fighting God’s Way

Bible Reading 1 Samuel 17: with a focus on verses 38-39
Focus verse: 2 Corinthians 10:4-5 – The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary they have the divine power to demolish strongholds. We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.


1 Samuel 17 is such a great history to read. It tells how God used David a young boy to bring down Goliath who was a huge man and a well experienced fighter. It tells that all the Israelites including their king, Saul, feared Goliath and would not dare face him. For forty consecutive days Goliath would appear twice a day to call for a fight from the Israelites but none could come out to face him. Then a young boy called David, appears from tending sheep at his father's land.  After hearing how the name of the God of Israel was being abused, he decided that he would throw himself into the ring and face this giant. He faces opposition from his elder brother but that did not stop him. He solders on since he knew that the God of Israel would give him victory over Goliath.

Now Saul, the king hears about David’s decision to go fight Goliath and calls David to himself so as to give him his (Saul’s) weapons he would use to fight Goliath. Verses 38-39 “Then Saul dressed David in his own tunic. He put a coat of armor on him and a bronze helmet of his head. David fastened on his sword over the tunic and tried walking around, because he was not used to them. “I cannot go in these,” he said to Saul, “because I am not used to them.” So he took them off.”

Fighting God’s way requires putting on the full armor of God and not the weapons of the world. Sometimes believers have failed to achieve victory because they have clothed themselves with weapons that are carnal. David tried to move around with one that was from Saul but realized it was canal and God was not in it. Imagine Saul had this armor before but still was terrified in fear and could not face Goliath with it. Look at how Saul’s own armor did not help him all the forty days that Goliath roared out: but when David comes, Saul tells him to have it and face Goliath with it. Why didn’t his own armor save him from the shame? Paul in Ephesians 6:10-18 reminds us of what the full armor of God is. As believers we need examine before we go for a fight if we are armed with God’s armor. We must also be careful with advice from friends when faced with a battle. Some advices are not from God and may not lead us to God’s victory regardless of who has spoken them. We must put out any carnal weapon and only look onto Jesus as the source of our strength, as the author and finisher of our faith.

Pastor Eliazar Wambo
Bethesda Faith Ministries

Additional scripture: "For we are not fighting against flesh-and-blood enemies, but against evil rulers and authorities of the unseen world, against mighty powers in this dark world, and against evil spirits in the heavenly places." Ephesians 6:12