Daily Devotion

April 29, 2006

Psa 119:137 Righteous art thou, O LORD, and upright are thy judgments.

Times have changed.  In his extreme pride, man has twisted the concepts of right and wrong.  He has exchanged morals for humanism, truth for relativism, and absolutes for feelings.

There used to be a time when there was a respectful awe about the Word of God.  If one did not understand something, or if he felt that a testimony from the Word was harsh or difficult to swallow; he had a spirit of humility about it, he felt that maybe he was ignorant, that he needed a teacher to explain to him the perspective of the issue at hand.  Now, mankind reads the word of God in a spirit of pride and judgment.  He judges the Word by his own standards of right and wrong, and since the ways of man are not the ways of God (Is 55:8), since man’s sense of right and wrong is different than that of God, man often ends up criticizing the word.  And as time goes on, as the world plunges more and more into darkness, it will be more and more difficult to understand the ways of God, and define them as “righteous” and “upright”.

We have to train ourselves today to look at everything that God allows to come our way as His perfect will. I am not suggesting a spirit of fatalism, but rather an understanding of His will, beyond the limited scope of the vantage point of our carnal mind, which is in fact, in enmity against God (Rom 8:7).

Thank you, Lord Jesus, for cold, heat, drought, flood, life, death, joy, sorrow, health, illness, good, bad, strength, weakness--for all the things you bring my way, they represent your perfect will for me, I thank you for it all.

Rom 8:28  And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.

Mar 7:37  And were beyond measure astonished, saying, He hath done all things well: he maketh both the deaf to hear, and the dumb to speak.

ANECDOTE:
I asked God for strength, that I might achieve,
     I was made weak, that I might learn humbly to obey...
     I asked for health, that I might do greater things,
     I was given infirmity, that I might do better things...
     I asked for riches, that I might be happy,
     I was given poverty that I might be wise...
     I asked for power, that I might have the praise of men,
     I was given weakness, that I might feel the need of God...
     I asked for all things, that I might enjoy life,
     I was given life, that I might enjoy all things...
     I got nothing that I asked for--but everything I had hoped for,
     Almost despite myself, my unspoken prayers were answered.
     I am among all men most richly blessed.

Patrick Lumbroso
For past issues of the daily devotion go to my blog at:
http://hearthstoneministries.blogspot.com/