Daily Devotional - 9/15/10 (10/15/09)

Prayer Focus - Friends



Day 1



Pray for:
One friend that you feel close to


Pray about:
Their physical needs
Their mental needs
Their emotional needs
Their spiritual needs


Dear Lord - Help me to listen to You each and every day and please grant me the strength to obey.




Psalms 45




"You love righteousness and hate wickedness; therefore God, your God, has set you above your companions by anointing you with the oil of joy." (vs. 7)




I believe we all want to be great and make a difference in this world. If you ask any child what they want to be when they grow up, they have great dreams. They don't plan on having a life of failure and mediocrity. It is only as we age and face failure and difficulties that we start to lose our dreams of making a difference. Even God, Himself has great dreams for us, plans to prosper us and not to harm us (Jeremiah 29: 11). So if it really is okay to have grand dreams of world impact, how will we accomplish it?


The world has one idea. There is the dog eat dog business model - the feeding with the sharks mentality where it is survival of the fittest and each man is out for himself. Then there is God's way. When Jesus' disciples were arguing over who would be greatest, Jesus' did not get mad at them for the question, but rather He pointed out their lack of righteous perspective on the matter. He told them they needed to become like little children to be great and they needed to become servants in order to lead. He told them the first would be last and the last would be first and that to truly be first, one would have to be the slave of all ( Matt 18:1-4 & Matt 20:20-28). Leadership and greatness for one who follows God comes in a completely different manner than it does for those in the world.  Yet this is what it will truly make the greatest impact in the long run and the legacy that this type of leadership leaves will follow us into eternity. Jesus made a difference. He stood out. He changed the whole world. The original disciples turned the whole world upside down as well. It is okay to make a difference and want to be great as long as we go about it God's way and become servants.


In this psalm, we learn two more of the keys to greatness. They are to love righteousness and hate wickedness. We need to get our focus aligned with God and love what He loves and hate what He hates. We need to go beyond thinking that it would be nice to be a good person and beyond disliking when people are irritating and rude. We need to love and hate. We need to get passionate about life. I, personally, am such a middle of the road kind of person. I don't like to make waves but yet this is very unChristlike. He wasn't a mild mannered guy. He loved and hated. He laughed and cried. He was fully alive. We need to open up ourselves to this and stop being afraid to live if we want to experience true greatness and purpose.


When we are finally willing to fully embrace this philosophy, then God will set us apart from our companions. He will set us apart and above them by anointing us with the oil of joy. Joy comes when we do right. Joy comes from stepping out and doing something. We need to stop worrying about whether it will be right or wrong, and just jump into the fray of life and saying, "I am here. I am here. I will do something. I will speak. I will serve. I will get in and get dirty. I am getting off the sidelines and I am living." Joy will come bursting forth. Jesus came to give life and life to the fullest. We need to embrace this. We need to leave the past. Stop looking back and build a life anew with what we have, with our spouses and children. We can do all things with Christ. We truly can.




Prayer for the Day



Dear Lord,


We praise You for giving us the desire to make a difference. We want our lives to count for something and we ask You to help us to see how we can achieve that. Focus our eyes and our hearts on Your way. You and Your Son have had the greatest impact on the world and we are called to do even greater things than what Jesus has done. It seems impossible, but if we really start living and doing and feeling, You will be able to work through us. Free us from all that hinders us and the sin that so easily entangles us and let us run with perseverance. Let us be clear channels for Your power to flow through. Allow us to love righteousness and hate wickedness. Help us to overcome our fear and do this so that we may receive the anointing of joy. You are the truth and the way and the life. We know. We desire to do Your will; increase our desire. We are letting go of the past and starting anew, today and everyday, we pray this. Father, hear our prayer.


In Jesus' Name,
Amen




QFT



1. What were my dreams when I was young? Have I given up on them? Do I have new dreams to make a difference?

2. Do I love righteousness? What part of righteousness is the most difficult for me to embrace and love?

3. Do I hate wickedness? What is the hardest for me to hate about wickedness? Is there some sin that I accept, tolerate, or even like? What should I do about this?

4. What is my idea about how to become great? What is my idea about leadership? Am I a servant of others?

5. How is my joy level? Could renewing my dreams and embracing life increase it?