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

All Together

Scripture Reading:  Acts 2:40-47

Focus Verse: Acts 2:42 "And they continued steadfastly in the apostles’ doctrine and fellowship, in the breaking of bread, and in prayers."

Sometimes when I preach in Kenya and I see many people accept Christ I wonder if they all knew what they were doing, and if they understand.  What kind of life do believers have after receiving Christ?  What should it look like to begin a Christian community.

As we continue our devotional study on "Christian community" let's observe a few things about the early church in Acts.  In this passage we see that about 3000 people were saved when Peter preached.  We see that right away these new believers were united with the other believers.  Verse 42 says they had fellowship with them, continued in the doctrine (teachings), they shared in the Lord's supper together, and they prayed together.

We see that these early believers shared what they had so that all could benefit from God's gifts.  Sometimes governments of some countries take taxes from those that earn money and then give to those that are in need.  Its a nice plan, but God says that it is the church's responsibility to help those in need, not just the government's.  When the outside world sees the church helping each other they will know something is different.  But so many times the outside world sees the church divided and not able to get along with each other.  This is damaging to our testimony.

A healthy Christian community attracts people to Christ.  The early church's passion for worship and love for each other was contagious.  A church that is healthy and loving will grow in numbers.  What can you do today within your church that will attract others to Christ?  Who is in need that you can help?


Bobby Johnson
Interlocking Ministries