Today's Beginning

Psalm 128:1-2 (AMP), "Blessed [happy and sheltered by God's favor] is everyone who fears the LORD, [and worships Him with obedience], who walks in His ways and lives according to His commandments. For you shall eat the fruit of [the labor of] your hands, you will be happy and blessed and it will be well with you." Monday... Now this is a great way to start a Monday morning. Psalm 128:1-2 (AMP) says, "Blessed [happy and sheltered by God's favor] is everyone who fears the LORD, [and worships Him with obedience], who walks in His ways and lives according to His commandments. For you shall eat the fruit of [the labor of] your hands, you will be happy and blessed and it will be well with you." Yes, that is a great way to start a Monday morning. Look at these words, blessed, happy, sheltered by God's favor, eat the fruit of the labor of your hands, and it will be well with you. And all you need to do is worship God, be obedient, walk in His way and live accord...

Psalm 119:133 (AMP), "Establish my footsteps in [the way of] Your word; Do not let any human weakness have power over me [causing me to be separated from You]." Friday... There can be unrest. Yes, there can be. Now the importance of it depends upon where it comes from. I as a child moved all over the place so moving is in my blood. Yes, moving can come from unrest but it is so important where the unrest comes from. Now at my age moving is not an easy thing to do and that can be a good thing. It keeps me settled. So, unrest can be a good thing or a bad one. Depending on where it comes from. Now, Psalm 119:133 (AMP) is a very good prayer for us to pray. It says, "Establish my footsteps in [the way of] Your word; Do not let any human weakness have power over me [causing me to be separated from You]." That is so good. Yes, unrest can be a human weakness but also a way for God to speak to us and to establish our footsteps in the way of His word. The Message Paraphrase sa...

Psalm 124:7 (NLT), "We escaped like a bird from a hunter's trap. The trap is broken, and we are free!" Thursday... Yes, we know who broke the trap. Now that is true of me. There have been traps set into my life where I was rescued. Yes being trapped for some is the end of the story. But not the writer of Psalm 124:7 (NLT). He writes, "We escaped like a bird from a hunter's trap. The trap is broken, and we are free!" Now too many times on my own that would not have been true. T here are so many who are still in that trap and it hurts. It really does. Now verse 8 says, "Our help is from the LORD, who made heaven and earth." That has been true of me. Over in John 20 one of the twelve disciples was in the trap of seeing before believing. Jesus had been resurrected and he had been seen by a few of the disciples but not Thomas. Verse 25 says, "But they told him, 'We have seen the Lord!' But he replied, 'I won't believe it unless I se...

Psalm 119:100 (AMP), "I understand more than the aged [who have not observed Your precepts], because I have observed and kept Your precepts." Wednesday... It isn't always a good thing to compare, but... I really do appreciate the life that God has brought me through. My birthday on Monday says that I have been living a long time. Now it isn't always a good thing to compare but I have really been privileged to have been exposed to God and his Word, the Bible. Now Psalm 119:100 (AMP) caught my attention as I was reading the Bible today. It says, "I understand more than the aged [who have not observed Your precepts], because I have observed and kept Your precepts." And I can say that too! Some are not as old as I am but everyone has the potential to observe God's precepts and live by them and I want to tell you from my experience that it will make all the difference in your life. Look at this, verses 100-101 in the New Living Translation says, "I am wi...

Isaiah 32:19-20a (NLT), "Even if the forest should be destroyed and the city torn down, the LORD will bless his people." Tuesday... Even if is not the end. We live in a world where we put our happiness in so many different ideas and voices, and we strive to be positive. We say even if bad happens we will still be happy but when it happens we live with such deep despair. We put our trust in our ability to be happy but then bad happens. Now Isaiah, a prophet in the Old Testament of the Bible lived in very difficult times.  In Isaiah 32:6 (NLT) he writes, "For fools speak foolishness and make evil plans. They practice ungodliness and spread false teachings about the LORD. They deprive the hungry of food and give no water to the thirsty." And that is also true even in the day in which we live. But he goes on. In verses 19-20a he says, "Even if the forest should be destroyed and the city torn down, the LORD will bless his people." Somehow we need to really catc...

Psalm 119:65-66 (NLT), "You have done so many good things for me, LORD, just as you promised. I believe in your commands; now teach me good judgement and knowledge." Monday... It is so good to look back and then ahead. It really is. There can be in looking back confidence building for what is ahead. That is what the Psalmist did in Psalm 119:65-66 (NLT). He writes, "You have done so many good things for me, LORD, just as you promised. I believe in your commands; now teach me good judgement and knowledge." Now the Evil One wants us to look back but he wants us to only see the bad. And of course there is some bad. And so many only see the bad and if that is all they see then that is what they will see in their future. Again the Psalmist says in verse 65, "You have done so many good things for me, LORD." And then he says, "just as you promised." Our looking back on the good things brings us to remember what God has promised and that he can be truste...