Daily Devotional - 9/4

The scripture reference for the story of the angel being delayed in coming that I mentioned yesterday is in Daniel 10:1 - 11:1, see especially verses 10 - 14. This is a very interesting story about the spiritual world and the spiritual warfare that goes on unbeknownst to us.

Daily Focus Letter - D

Pray for:
Five things you are thankful for beginning with the focus letter
Five people whose first or last name begins with the focus letter
A country, city, or place that begins with the focus letter
A characteristic that you would like to see your household grow in beginning with the focus letter

Dear Lord - help me to hear Your ever present voice and grant me the strength to obey.

Psalms 4

It is okay to ask for relief from our distress. We don't have to just gut it out all the time. There definitely are times of battle or times of suffering that we will have to endure but then God provides times of refreshing. Even Jesus thought His disciples should go off for some time of relief when they returned from their missionary journey.

What we need to ask ourselves is am I really doing the work of the Lord or standing firm in some struggle so that a time of relief is merited. If so, great, but I know I have many times just fallen into relief mode and often struggles and problems came about because I was in relief mode and then I asked for more relief. I was just being spiritually lazy. What I really needed in order to start feeling better was to start doing something!

As for suffering, it is okay to ask for relief but then we need to be ready for God to say no, or not yet. The best example of this is Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane. He asked, and asked some more, but in the end, thankfully, He said, "not my will, but Yours be done"(Luke 22:39-46). Paul asked for the thorn to be removed from him but God said no, that His power was made perfect in Paul's weakness. Paul finally surrendered it and was able to say he "delighted" in his weakness and other struggles which were quite astounding (see 2 Cor 12:7-10 & 6:3-10).

The bottom line is that we are set apart by God, for His purposes. We aren't here for ourselves and our hopes and dreams. There is the wonderful verse in Psalms 37:4 - "Delight yourself in the Lord and He will give you the desires of your heart," but often we forget the first part - delighting ourselves in God - and focus primarily on God giving us the desires of our heart. We need to think more about how we can delight in God and less about our desires and dreams. When we do this, the two will start falling into place.

Secondly, we need to think about whether or not we are allowing ourselves to be set apart. Perhaps we are blending right into the world and everyone around us. What do our activities show, how about the TV shows we watch, and the movies we go to. What about the books we read and the places we hang out? I know when I first became I a Christian I was very sensitive towards what I was watching, wearing, and reading but then I got rather casual about it and even used the rationalization that I have to know what the world is into. After having children, I think I became more sensitive to these issues again because I started looking at the world from their eyes. When your child starts being able to read and starts asking what that vulgar saying on that person's t-shirt means, it begins to hit home. Or when you have to change the TV channel when they walk into the room, it makes you think.

Sometimes the way the world is, and the baseness of our culture as it strays away from Godly principles gets me upset. Then I tend to feel guilty because when I was growing up, I was taught to not get angry. We were not even allowed to fight in my house. So, while I understand the reasoning behind the rule, (it is exhausting to have duelling siblings), being told to not fight or to not get angry did not stop the very human emotion of anger, nor should it have really. What it did produce was a lot of built up resentment and the victim mentality in me so that I was not able to be angry in appropriate situations or even say "no" when I needed to. This led to me allowing others to abuse me and also to me placing myself in bad situations.

Verse 4 of this psalm was a revelation to me because it says "in your anger, do not sin." It is just accepted that we will get angry. It is okay. Jesus got angry. He even acted on it, but He did not sin (Matt 21:12 -13). I can get angry, I just need to channel it right. I cannot have a temper tantrum, which I want to do. That would be sin. I cannot throw things, which I have to admit I have done. That would be sin. I cannot swear at someone and tell them off. That would be sin. I cannot reject the world in the sense of looking down on it and feeling that I am above it. Or I cannot look down on those of my friends that are involved with things I know are wrong. I can be upset, even angry, but then I must respond in love and concern. They are the ones that will ultimately suffer. I need to be concerned about their spiritual welfare, and as one who has been there myself, try to help them and reach out in love. How they respond is up to them but my love can not stop. In my anger, I cannot sin

Self evaluation is so important to handling our anger correctly. As it says in verse 4, at night I need to go over my day and search my heart. I need to be silent and let God speak to me about where I have been and what I have done. Then, I need to deal with whatever I find. We cannot let the sun go down on our anger, as this will give the Devil a foothold in our lives (Eph 4:26-27). When we get angry (whether or not it is justified), and then don't deal with it, we let bitterness grow and develop in our hearts. This can eventually lead us away from God. We are to make sure that no bitter root grows up to cause trouble and defile many (Heb 12:15). Unresolved anger is the start of this bitterness.

In all this, sometimes, it seems like life is just too much. Too many problems, too many personal issues to deal with, too many world problems. I remember a point in time in my husband's battle with cancer, right after we found out that the cancer had spread, that I saw something negative about the state of the world on TV and just started weeping. My husband couldn't understand why this little short TV segment could set me off. I just kept telling him, "I can't take anymore bad news." Everything was building up and I was asking just like the psalmist - "Who can show us any good?" (vs 6). I just couldn't see any good. After I finished my cry, I turned back to God. I had to look up because there was nowhere else to go. In all that I have gone through in the last 25 years of trying to truly follow God, this is where I have always ended up. Yes, there are many things around me but God. That's it "Yes, But God."

I have always loved the last verses of the psalm (vs 7 & 8) because of this. It says - "Let the light of your face shine upon us, O Lord. You have filled my heart with greater joy than when their grain and new wine abound. I will lie down and sleep in peace for you alone, O Lord, make me dwell in safety." I had to stop looking around at the world and my circumstances as overwhelming as they seemed and look up at God, at the light coming from Him. I had to remember that I am supposed to focus on God, rejoice in God, know that in the world there will be troubles, but God has overcome the world. The world - the grain and new wine which can be enjoyable - will never fill me up. Even if everything was going great in my life, even then, I still wouldn't be filled with as much as I can be with God.

So in the end, I can lie down and sleep in peace. In the midst of everything the Lord is making me dwell in safety. Everything is going to be alright.

(If you know of someone that might want to also follow this blog that is not on Facebook, the website is http://www.lillianjacobs.blogspot.com/)