Daily Devotional - 9/18/10 (10/18/09)

Prayer Focus - Friends


Day 4


Pray for:
One friend that you feel close to
One friend that has become distant and you would like to be closer to
One friend from long ago
One new friend


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



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




Psalms 48




"Within Your temple, O God, we meditate on Your unfailing love. Like Your name, O God, Your praise reaches to the ends of the earth; Your right hand is filled with righteousness." (vs. 9 - 10)


"For this God is our God for ever and ever; He will be our guide even to the end." (vs. 14)




God will never stop being our God. He will guide us till the end if we let Him. His love for us is unfailing and as high as the heavens are above the earth. His love never fails. Everything else will. I have experienced that.  At the waterpolo reunion I went to last week end, the memories of failing to win the National Championship in my senior year of college haunted me. After playing my freshman year, I took two years off. My team won the championship one of the years I did not play and then won once again the year after I graduated. The elusive victory that was so important to me never came. I failed. I had a chance to win the game for us, as did many other of my teammates. All we had to do was tie the game and we would have been the champions but we could not do it. I missed a shot that I had taken many other times over the years, my easiest shot and I barred the ball.


I again asked myself the question I had asked off and on for the past twenty years - Why? Why couldn't I have made it? It haunts me still, if I let it, although everyone else seems to have moved on. It was a lifetime ago, but for me, if I allow myself to think about it, it seems like yesterday. I wanted to be the best. For once in my sporting life, I wanted to be a winner. I was always the next best, always on the losing teams. Always -almost, but not quite. I wanted to win this last time, this last chance for me. I was sure it was going to happen this time. So when the game was over, it was devastating to know that that victory would never come for me. It was over. My waterpolo career was over. Waterpolo had failed me. I had failed me.


As I walked around the campus of my Alma mater, the questions came back up for me - Why? I had prayed. I had always tried to put God first, even in my waterpolo. I had not missed church for a game. I did not party. I tried to be a good example. So why had God not answered my prayers that day when He knew how important it was for me. This thought of having missed the mark and having failed echoed in mind, but it echoed over more than just my waterpolo career. It seemed to loom large over my entire college experience. Mediocre grades, mediocre relationships, always on the outside looking in at what others were experiencing. Always - almost victorious, almost good friends, almost happy. Almost.


I missed out on so much being so "almost". I felt like such a failure most of the time I was there in college. So much sadness. I had done so well in high school and yet I had struggled so much in college just to make it. So I asked myself - Why?

As I walked through the Eucalyptus forests on campus, a thought came to me.  Maybe it was because God wanted me to realize that I was a winner already. I was a Christian and I had a relationship with Him. I was willing to forgo the immediate gratification that the world offered for something that would be longer lasting. I was willing to walk a different path and I was willing to do the hard work of dealing with my character and striving to become like Christ. That is true victory, anyway, not a fleeting athletic victory that is remembered only by a handful of individuals and posted in old scrapbooks.

I had won the victory in Christ; an eternal victory, and I have still won that victory. God had not failed me at all. He was guiding me to a greater victory. The peace that I feel now with my life and the blessings I have in my husband and children were bought with the hard work that I began in college. I have won the victory, the one that really matters, because Christ has won the victory, and that should be enough.




Here are additional verses to consider on the victory we have already won if we are right with God and Christ:



“But thanks be to God, who always leads us in triumphal procession in Christ and through us spreads everywhere the fragrance of the knowledge of Him." (2 Corinthians 2:14)


"But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, my dear brothers, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain." (1 Corinthians 15:57 - 58)


"Yours, O Lord, is the greatness and the power and the glory and the majesty and the splendor, for everything in heaven and earth is Yours. Yours, O Lord, is the kingdom; You are exalted as head over all. Wealth and honor come from You; You are the ruler of all things. In Your hands are strength and power to exalt and give strength to all." (1 Chronicles 29:11-12)


"Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? ... No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present or the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord." (Romans 8:35 &37-39)



“This is the love for God: to obey His commands. And His commandments are not burdensome, for everyone born of God overcomes the world. This is the victory that has overcome the world, even our faith. Who is it that overcomes the world? Only he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?"  ( 1John 5:3-5)





Prayer for the Day




Dear Lord,


We thank You for the victories You give. They are eternal victories and far outweigh anything we can win here on earth. Temporal victories can be so fulfilling and we enjoy Your blessing but often even better comes for us when You say no to something we desire. Help us to not be like spoiled children who sulk and pout over not receiving something we have asked for. You are looking at these moments of our lives from the perspective of eternity and we cannot even fathom the riches and depth of Your wisdom and knowledge. We are grateful that You give us each new day and we are grateful for what our momentary troubles are gaining us. Help us to be obedient and joyful despite failures because they are really not failures in the long run. Keep our perspectives right and help us to let go of any past regrets. We cannot go back and take anything over so let us truly forgive and forget. Let us live today and each day from now on like there is no other for us and then we will find we can look back with a happy heart. We are grateful for Your directive to forget the past and strain toward what is ahead. Grant us obedience in this so that we may truly live.


In Jesus' Name,
Amen




QFT



1. Am I letting God be my guide? How can I do that?

2. Do I have any past regrets or failures that are haunting me? Have I ever talked to anyone about them? How can I let them go?

3. How do I feel when God says no or wait to me regarding something that I am praying about? Do I lose faith? Do I pout or sulk?

4. Do I have God's perspective about who is a winner? Do I consider myself a winner because I have a relationship with God or am I looking at more worldly achievements for my feelings of success?

5.  Do I feel that my work for the Lord is worthwhile or am I tempted to feel discouraged when results are not readily evident?  How can I keep the proper perspective on eternity?