Today's Beginning

Psalm 54:4 (NIRV), "But I know that God helps me. The Lord is the one who keeps me going." Monday... He is the one who keeps me going. And that is definitely the truth. Now David wrote Psalm 54. And it was during a very tough time. It seems there were these men from Ziph who went to King Saul and told him that David was hiding from him among them. Saul wanted to kill David because he knew that God has chosen David to be the new King. And these guys told Saul where he was. And David must have know it. So David started this Psalm in verse 1 (NIV) saying, "Save me, O God, by your name; vindicate me by your might. Hear my prayer, O God; listen to my words." Now he could pray this prayer because of verse 4 (NIRV), "But I know that God helps me. The Lord is the one who keeps me going." Yes, that is a great fact to know when we are going through tough times. Do you know that? Is that true of you? Well David knew it was true because the Lord definitely was the one...

Psalm 51:1 (NLT), "Have mercy on me, O God, because of your unfailing love." Friday... Now this can be ours. Psalm 51 was written by King David when he was confronted by the prophet Nathan after he had committed adultery with Bathsheba which broke his relationship with God. This Psalm shows his guilt but then his returning to joy. Yes, there were consequences because of his disobedience to God. Yes, he did have a choice. The first verse tells of how to start in our getting back to where we can be in our relationship with God if we too have sinned. It says, "Have mercy on me, O God, because of your unfailing love." And that is a where we start. We need to first realize who God is and what He is like. Yes, He can be merciful and he is unfailing in his love. Now over in Jeremiah 11:1-3 it says, "The LORD gave another message to Jeremiah. He said, 'Remind the people of Judah and Jerusalem about the terms of my covenant with them.' Say to them, 'This is ...

Jeremiah 20:13 (NLT), "Sing to the LORD! Praise the LORD! For though I am poor and needy, he rescues me from my oppressors." Thursday... He really had a bad day. So how are we tempted to handle our bad days? Over in 1 Corinthians 10:12-13a the Apostle Paul writes, "If you think you are standing tall, be careful not to fall. The temptations in your life are no different from what others experience." Yes we may think we have what it takes to handle bad days but we need to be careful. We think we have what it takes to handle them but the temptations in our life are no different from what others experience. Now Jeremiah over in the Old Testament was having a very bad day. He was arrested, whipped and put into stocks and he was a prophet of God. Iin verse 7 he writes, "O LORD, you misled me, and I allowed myself to be misled. You are stronger than I am and you overpowered me. Now I am mocked every day; everyone laughs are me." And we too can be tempted to turn ...

Psalm 49:2-3 (NLT), "High and low, rich and poor - listen! For my words are wise and my thoughts are filled with insight." Wednesday... This is what I needed. Where do you go when you need answers to your situation? I'm at that point today and after my time of focused prayer I read these verses. Psalm 49:2-3 (NLT) says, "High and low, rich and poor - listen! For my words are wise and my thoughts are filled with insight." Have you found that prayer and God's Word really do go together? It is basically a conversation with God. Yes the Lord's Spirit does speak directly to us but He also speaks through His written Word, the Bible. He quickens our heart through His Word. And that is what happened as I read this Psalm. "High and low, rich and poor - listen! For my words are wise and my thoughts are filled with insight." Now the listen part is so important especially when you are reading the Bible. Now I needed what it said, "listen! For my words...

1 Corinthians 8:2-3 (NLT), "Anyone who claims to know all the answers doesn't really know very much. But the person who loves God is the one whom God recognizes." Tuesday... Yes, we think this is so important. We live in a world where knowledge is so important. We want to have all the answers and when something comes up where there is a question we want to be there with the answer or at least our opinion from our knowledge. And this can be a problem the older we get. But Paul in writing 1 Corinthians 8 says in verses 2-3 (NLT), "Anyone who claims to know all the answers doesn't really know very much. But the person who loves God is the one whom God recognizes." Now in verse 1b he says, "But while knowledge makes us feel important, it is love that strengthens the church." And that is also true in a family or at work or with friends. But it makes us feel so important when we are the answer person. Yes, knowledge with wisdom is important but how we sh...

Jeremiah 17:7 (AMP), "Blessed [with spiritual security] is the man who believes and trusts in and relies on the LORD and whose hope and confident expectation is the LORD." Monday... Yes, we can know. Yes, there is a lot that we do not know. I know there is a heaven but I really don't know a lot about it because God hasn't told us. But there is so much that we do know because God has told us. Now God told the prophet Jeremiah this in Jeremiah 17:7 (AMP), "Blessed [with spiritual security] is the man who believes and trusts in and relies on the LORD and whose hope and confident expectation is the LORD." Now do we know exactly what blessed means? Well, do know that if we believe and trust and rely on the LORD and our hope and confident expectation is in the LORD then we will be blessed. Now he gives an example of what it means to be blessed. Verse 8 says, "For he will be [nourished] like a tree planted by the waters, that spreads out its roots by the river...

Jeremiah 14:22 (NLT), "Can any of the worthless foreign god's send us rain? Does it fall from the sky by itself? No, you are the one, O LORD our God! Only you can do such things. So we will wait for you to help us." Friday... Yes, he can so let's wait. Yes, waiting is so difficult. Now Jeremiah in chapter 14 asks some questions that I know in our honesty we sometimes have and we maybe have now. In verse 19a he writes, "LORD, have you completely rejected Judah? Do you really hate Jerusalem?" Yes, the words rejection and hate can come up in waiting. It sounds a lot like our kids and also us when we were kids when the parents didn't give them and us what we wanted. Yes waiting can be tough. And here is something else that they come up with and if we are honest, what we have too. Verse 21a says, "For the sake of your reputation, LORD, do not abandon us. Do not disgrace your own throne." Two words, reputation and disgrace. It is so hard to wait. It ...

Psalm 43:3 (MSG), "Send out your light and Your truth; let them lead me. Let them bring me to Your holy mountain and to the place where You dwell." Thursday... Yes, let them lead me. It is so important for us to at different times quit hiding our feelings and to be introspective and honest and ask the right questions and from that change our focus. Now the writer of Psalm 43 asks himself some very good questions. Maybe you too need to ask these questions today. In verse 5a (NIV) he asks, "Why, my soul, are you downcast? Why so disturbed within me?" And good questions are so important to ask but who we are asking the questions to is also important. Now the answer is so important and we need to be honest. So, why are we downcast and why are we so disturbed. Good questions Now verse 3 says what we need before we ask these questions. The Message Paraphrase says, "Send out your light and Your truth; let them lead me. Let them bring me to Your holy mountain and to th...

1 Corinthians 4:20 (NLT), "For the Kingdom of God is not just a lot of talk; it is living by God's power." Wednesday... So where does it come from? Earlier in this chapter Paul says in verse 3, "As for me, it matters very little how I might be evaluated by you or by any human authority. I don't even trust my own judgement on this point." So where are we evaluated? So where does it come from? We, a few years back were going to buy a travel trailer and of course we needed a vehicle that could pull it. Now it is easy to evaluate the right pickup on level ground but real power is needed going up a mountain. That is where we needed the power. So that is where it must be and is evaluated. Have you thought that where most people evaluate their relationship with God is through the good times? But verse 20 says, "For the Kingdom of God is not just a lot of talk; it is living by God's power." Those mountains you are facing is where your living by God...

Psalm 41:11 (NIV), "I know that you are pleased with me, for my enemy does not triumph over me." Tuesday... That is a different slant. I love the honesty of David. He writes in Psalm 41:11 (NIV), "I know that you are pleased with me, for my enemy does not triumph over me." Now it is important for us to see there will be enemies in our life. There will be people who will strive to bring us down because of our belief and also just because of who we are. We may have a wrong thought that because we serve a God who is all powerful that we will have no problems, no enemies. That if God loves us then he will take care of all the bad around us and that is how he shows he is pleased with us. Yes, David gives us a different slant. Again he says, "I know that you are pleased with me, for my enemy does not triumph over me." And that means there is someone out there who is striving to bring us down. And that is true during this time in which we are living. Now, there i...

Jeremiah 10:6 (NLT), "LORD, there is no one like you! For you are great, and your name is full of power." Monday... Yes, He is and yes they are. I love reading the Bible. I love to read many of the books in the Bible and many Versions. Right now, I am reading three books, the Psalms, Jeremiah and 1 Corinthians. And I usually start my morning reading in the New International Version and then on to the New Living Translation.   Now here is what I found today in Jeremiah 10 in the New Living Translation. Verse 6 says, "LORD, there is no one like you! For you are great, and your name is full of power." And yes He is, but verse 8 says, "People who worship idols are stupid and foolish. The things they worship are made of wood." And yes they are. Now have we stopped and thought about what we may worship? They may not be made just of wood but they are made many times by us, by other people but for sure they aren't the real God. Jeremiah says in verses 3-5, ...

Psalm 37:1-2 (MSG), "Do not fret over those who do evil; do not envy those who do wrong. For they wither quickly like grass and wilt like tender plants." Friday... But it may be a waste of time. Now there is a lot around us that can grab our focus, get our attention, that is really a waste of time. David says in Psalm 37:1-2 (MSG), "Do not fret over those who do evil; do not envy those who do wrong. For they wither quickly like grass and wilt like tender plants." When we are on the Beltway, who gets our attention? It is the wild driver. Now we need to be careful but our focus must be on our driving, and our confidence that God is with us in the passenger seat and he is there to protect us. But it is so easy for the wild ones to get our total attention and also in life the evil that is around us.  Now the Amplified Bible says in verses 1-5, "Do not worry because of evildoers, nor be envious toward wrongdoers; For they will wither quickly like grass, and fade lik...

Romans 16:17 (MSG), "Now I urge you, brothers, to watch out for those who create divisions and obstacles that are contrary to the teachings you have learned." Thursday... There is so much confusion. There really is. So much of what is believed today comes from places other than God's Word and it can be contrary to the teachings we have learned. But that was also true during the time of Paul and in his writings. In his letter to the church in Rome in the last chapter of Romans, in chapter 16 and verse 17 (MSG) he writes, "Now I urge you, brothers, to watch out for those who create divisions and obstacles that are contrary to the teachings you have learned." He then says in verse 18, "For such people are not serving our Lord Jesus Christ, but their own appetites. By smooth talk and flattery they deceive the hearts of the naive." And it is so easy for us to believe from our wants instead of from God's Word and his wisdom. Now in verse 19b (NLT) Paul s...

Psalm 35:3b, "Let me hear you say, 'I will give you victory!'" Wednesday... Please, please! Sometimes we need to pray prayers of desperation, don't we? Maybe that is the prayer we need to pray today so David in his Psalms is a great place in the Bible for us to go. At least, I've found that so. David writes this prayer in Psalm 35:3b. He says, "Let me hear you say, 'I will give you victory.'" Do we need to pray that prayer today? Do you need to hear God say that to you today? Now too many times our lives seem to be in other people's hands. We are striving to sell our house and a person came through the other day and didn't like it because we have a beltway right behind our house. So they walked away. Now it was great to have a person come and see it on the first day it was on the Internet but we were a little disappointed in their not choosing our house. And there are so many situations that are not under our control, and maybe that i...

Jeremiah 4:1b (NLT), "If you wanted to return to me, you could." Tuesday... Yes, we really do have the power to choose. And our choice does make a difference. The book of Jeremiah tells of the choices Israel and Judah make and of course of the consequences, and there are consequences both in good and bad wants and choices. Jeremiah reminds them in 4:1b (NLT) of what the LORD says, "If you wanted to return to me, you could." There is definite power both in good and bad in our wants. The LORD is faithful to tell us. Have you stopped and analyzed some of the outcomes of your wants that you chose to do? And it is so important for us to realize the power we have in our wants. Yes they could blame God for all that was going to happen to them but Jeremiah reminds them, "If you wanted to return to me, you could." The first part of verse 1 says, "'O Israel' says the LORD, 'If you wanted to return to me, you could.'" Now along with an if co...

Psalm 33:6 (NLT), "The LORD merely spoke, and the heavens were created. He breathed the word, and all the stars were born." Monday... Let's stop, look and listen. The writer of Psalm 33 in verse 6 (NLT) says, "The LORD merely spoke, and the heavens were created. He breathed and all the stars were born." I, know, I know he worked a miracle when he made you and me but, and this is so important, but we don't have what it takes to do it all. No matter what we are facing it is not all up to us. Oh we have great ability and it is amazing what we can do, and yes the LORD created us but stop and look at this. Now it really does help for us to believe that God created the heavens and the earth and that he created you and me. And then to realize that he merely spoke and the heavens were created and to me that really makes a difference in what I am facing today. Yes, we do have such potential but in no way can I merely speak and what I am facing is taken care of but Go...