Exuberance

This psalm expresses the exuberance of the psalmist as he recognizes that God is merciful in salvation, great in His works of creation, just in His dealings with the wicked, and faithful in prospering His children.

Commentary from the MacArthur study Bible, notes for Psalm 92:1-15.

Pray!

This places no limits on a believer’s prayers, as long as they are according to God’s will and purpose.  This therefore means that man’s faith and prayer are not inconsistent with God’s sovereignty.  And it is not the believer’s responsibility to figure out how that can be true, but simply to be faithful and obedient to the clear teaching on prayer, as Jesus gives it in this passage.  God’s will is being unfolded through all of redemptive history, by means of the prayers of His people-as His saving purpose is coming to pass through the faith of those who hear the gospel and repent.

Commentary from the MacArthur study Bible, notes for Mark 11:24.

New Every Morning

The bedrock of faith is the reality that God keeps all His promises according to His truthful, faithful character.

Commentary from the MacArthur study Bible, notes for Lamentations 3:23.

The Faithful One

God is faithful in regard to creation (Ps. 119:90), His promises (Deut. 7:9; 2 Cor. 1:18; Heb. 10:23), salvation (1 Thess. 5:24), temptation (1 Cor. 10:13), suffering (1 Pet. 4:19), and here faithful to strengthen and protect from Satan (cf. John 17:15; Eph. 6:16; 1 Thess. 3:5).

Notes for 2 Thessalonians 3:3, from the MacArthur study Bible.

Be Strong and Courageous

~Deuteronomy 31:1-8~

Have you ever faced a challenge that left you feeling inadequate and afraid?  The great men and women of the Bible weren’t superhuman, so they undoubtedly experienced the same weaknesses we do.  Though Joshua was a strong military leader, he probably felt inadequate to fill Moses’ shoes.  After all, Moses had talked with God face to face, performed amazing miracles, and led the Israelites out of Egyptian bondage.  How could Joshua ever expect to live up to that?

But remember, Moses didn’t start out as a mighty man of faith.  When God first called him to deliver the children of Israel, he focused on his own inadequacy and begged the Lord to send someone else (Exodus 4:10-13).  Moses must have known exactly how Joshua felt.  That’s why he exhorted his successor to be strong and courageous.

However, the strength Joshua needed was not going to come from positive thinking or puffed-up self-confidence.  What he needed was assurance that the Lord would go ahead of him every step of the way and give the nation the land as promised.  Confidence in God-given challenges never comes from within ourselves.  But when we believe the Lord and rely on His word instead of our feelings, He’ll give us the ability and courage that we need to accomplish His will.

If your life were always easy, you’d never need strength and courage – and you would miss great opportunities to get to know the Lord intimately.  Only as we face one faith-stretching challenge after another and experience God’s faithfulness will we learn to depend on Him instead of ourselves.

Commentary from Charles Stanley’s In Touch devotional, December 9, 2017.

Stronghold

Our culture wants us to believe another lie-that we can accomplish much without God.  People will point out our human strengths, like education, skills, and gifts, and assure us that we have all we require to succeed.  The implication is that we don’t need God.  Satan always wants to turn us away from reliance upon the Lord; our enemy wants us to think that prior success means we can handle the task on our own.  The Bible tells us otherwise.  To do God’s work God’s way requires that we rely on His Spirit instead of depending on ourselves or others.  The lives of God’s children are to be characterized by steady reliance upon the Holy Spirit.

So he answered me, “This is the word

of the Lord to Zerubbabel: ‘Not by 

strength or might, but by My Spirit,’

says the Lord of Hosts.

What are you, great mountain?

Before Zerubbabel you will become

a plain.  And he will bring

out the capstone accompanied

by shouts of:

Grace, grace to it!”

Zechariah 4:6-7

Portions of commentary from Charles Stanley’s In Touch devotional, February 12, 2017.

Adorned

Every day we are recipients of one blessing after another.  Every morning we see new mercies and rediscover God’s great faithfulness.  David Jeremiah’s Pathways Devotional, November 11.

“For these blessings we owe Almighty God, from whom we derive them, and with profound reverence, our most grateful and unceasing acknowledgements.”  James Monroe

 

Hope

Let us hold on to the confession of our hope without wavering,

for He who promised is faithful.

Hebrews 10:23

He is the image of the invisible God,

the firstborn over all creation;

because by Him everything was created,

in heaven and on earth,

the visible and the invisible,

whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities-

all things have been created

through Him and for Him.

He is before all things, and by Him all things hold together.

He is also the head of the body,

the church;

He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead,

so that He might come to have 

first place in everything.

For God was pleased [to have]

all His fullness dwell in Him,

and through Him to reconcile everything to Himself

by making peace through the blood of His cross-

whether things on earth or things in heaven.

And you were once alienated and hostile in mind because of your evil actions.  

But now He has reconciled you by His physical body

through His death, 

to present you holy, faultless, and blameless before Him-

if indeed you remain grounded and steadfast

in the faith,

and are not shifted away from the hope of the gospel that you heard.

[This gospel] has been proclaimed in all creation under heaven,

and I, Paul, have become a minister of it.

Colossians 1:15-23