Daily Devotional - 10/24

Prayer Focus - Enemies


Day 3
Pray for:
One person who was mean to you when you were a child
One person who has given you a lot of trouble recently
One person from your family (immediate or extended) that has given you trouble at some point in time

Pray about:
Their physical needs
Their mental needs
Their emotional needs
Their spiritual needs
Your ability to offer complete forgiveness from your heart
Your ability to let go of the hurts and move on whether they will ever apologize or not


Dear Lord - Please open my ears to hear and grant me the strength to obey.



Psalms 54



"Surely God is my help; the Lord is the one who sustains me....I will sacrifice a freewill offering to You; I will praise Your name, O Lord, for it is good. For He has delivered me from all my troubles, and my eyes have looked in triumph on my foes." ( vs 4 & 6-7)


God is my help. I have to repeat this to myself daily, hourly, and moment by moment. God is my help. He is the one who sustains me. There is so much to be done in my life. I must learn to separate the urgent from the important. I must learn to prioritize. And I must learn to rely more and more on the Lord who sustains me. I am learning to look at the worst that could happen and then look at it through God's eyes. For example, if my daughter should get sick with H1N1, which happens to be something on my mind on a regular basis right now, what would be the worst that could happen? Having asthma, she could get very sick. She could even die. I have had to think of this before. If this worst case scenario would happen, she would be in heaven. She would be happy and at peace forever. Since she is only five, she would be with God and would be spared all the heart ache that we face living on earth. I would be heartbroken, on the other hand, but at least I would know that she was safe and no longer had to suffer. I would not have to worry about whether or not she would grow up to know God. She would be there waiting for me. This tends to help me face the uncertainty of today. Even the worst would not be that bad when looked at in an eternal perspective.

So I will sacrifice a freewill offering to God. I will freely come and bring Him whatever I have to offer. I will not be forced to follow. I am so grateful that I am even allowed to participate. I would have nothing without God and I look forward to seeing how He will deliver me from all of my present troubles. He has amazed me up until now with how He has gotten me out of my past troubles. I am certain that I will look in triumph on my foes someday. And what a great day that will be!



Prayer for the Day



Dear Lord,


We look forward to the day that we will be able to look with triumph on our foes. You have delivered us so far and You will continue to deliver us. You are good, always good and we praise You. You are our help. You do sustain us. You get us up and put us to bed. You keep our hearts beating and our lungs pulling in oxygen. You are great and You deserve all the freewill offerings I can bring. Help us to not be like horses or mules that have to be pulled along. Help us to come willingly and eagerly to serve You. Forgive us in our failures to please You. We need You and praise You for Your mercy. Continue to walk with us and carry us when we are weak. We worship You.

In Jesus' Name,
Amen



QFT


1. How often do I think about God actually being with me in each present moment? Do I turn to Him for help in the moment or do I forget He is there?


2. Am I allowing God to prioritize my day and my time? Do I let Him get involved with the mundane areas of my life like house work or do I feel that God is only interested in the "big issues"?


3. How can I bring a freewill offering to God? Is my service and worship a joy or burden to me? What can I change to improve my attitude of joy when I am serving or worshiping God?


4. What are the foes in my life? What am I doing to conquer them? How will I feel when I am delivered and can look at them in triumph?