Saturday

Psalm 40:9-10 – May 9, 2009
Ps 40:9-10 "I proclaim righteousness in the great assembly; I do not seal my lips, as you know, O LORD. 10 I do not hide your righteousness in my heart; I speak of your faithfulness and salvation. I do not conceal your love and your truth from the great assembly." NIV

Do you speak for God? We are called to be His voice, His witnesses to testify of the great things that God has done. The last recorded words of Jesus commission us with power and command us to be a witness of all that He has done. Acts 1:8 records this commissioning “you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth." We are called to be God’s voice but too much of the church has been living with sealed lips. It is God’s intention that the church be his mouthpiece, His representatives in the earth. Peter tells us, in 1 Peter 4:10-11 “If anyone speaks, he should do it as one speaking the very words of God.” Our words are not words of human origin, but like the Lord our words are living and active when we speak what the Lord would speak. We release a living force into the hearts of the hearers that produces faith which brings transformation. How can we remain silent? How can we withhold God’s praise and the testimony of what God has done? When the church remains silent we rob the people of the opportunity to receive a gift from God and we rob God of the opportunity to express His love and power to a dark world in the midst of that situation.
David was unwilling to conceal the love that God had birthed in his heart. He was committed to proclaiming God’s righteousness in the gatherings of God’s people. God positions each one of us purposefully with a plan for our testimony to affect the community that he places us in. In Acts 17:25-27 Paul testifies to this principle, “From one man he made every nation of men, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he determined the times set for them and the exact places where they should live . 27 God did this so that men would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from each one of us.” Today, someone is waiting for you! Today, someone needs to hear your voice! Do not remain silent about the glory and goodness of God. Esther was positioned strategically by the Lord to be His voice in the midst of a dark time in her nation’s history and she had to make a choice. Her mentor Mordecai cautioned her in Est 4:14 “if you remain silent at this time, relief and deliverance for the Jews will arise from another place, but you and your father's family will perish. And who knows but that you have come to royal position for such a time as this?" Too often we underestimate the consequence of our silence. We live forgetting that we may be someone’s last chance to find the Lord. We live blind to the pain that we could be God’s answer for as our words of life bring healing to an aching heart. God continually places you in the midst of great need. He is moving the hearts of men to be ready to hear you. It is time to get our eyes off of ourselves and speak! Be the voice of God that someone is waiting to hear today!

Friday

Psalm 40:6-8 – May 8, 2009
Ps. 40:6-8 “Sacrifice and offering you did not desire, but my ears you have pierced; burnt offerings and sin offerings you did not require. 7 Then I said, "Here I am, I have come — it is written about me in the scroll. 8 I desire to do your will, O my God; your law is within my heart.” NIV

Have your ears been pierced by the spirit of God? God is not seeking religious sacrifice from His children. He is seeking for a heart that will listen to His voice. In 1 Sam 15:22 we are asked the rhetorical question "Does the LORD delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as much as in obeying the voice of the LORD? To obey is better than sacrifice, and to heed is better than the fat of rams.” When we get the revelation that God is looking first for an obedient heart our focus changes from performing acts or duties to a goal of listening. If the priority of our lives before God is to obey his commands then self-generated religious works are of very little value. What takes on preeminence is now the need to listen. What is God saying? What is He asking of me?
The good news is that God will help us to hear! If we will quiet ourselves and set ourselves apart unto his presence with humble cries for help then, our God will pierce our ears with his voice. When our ears have been opened to Him and we are able to listen with confidence it is much easier then say to the Lord, “here I am, I have come…” Have you given God you’re “here I am?” When you surrender yourself to the voice of God your desires change. The more we cultivate God’s voice the more our hearts are awakened to love Him deeply. Every time I fall into a season of distraction from devotion the consequence is a dulling of the inner voice of God. When I keep myself in the place of listening Godly actions increase Godly desires. Consistency before God is rewarded with sensitivity to His voice and presence. If we will fan the flame of holy love before the Lord then in response the Lord will tenderize us and shape the very desires that drive us. The more we give ourselves to Him the more we want to give ourselves to Him. Today, start by giving God your “Here I am, I have come!” and see Him shape you from the inside out.

Thursday

Psalm 40:5 - May 7, 2009

Ps 40:5 "Many, O LORD my God, are the wonders you have done. The things you planned for us no one can recount to you; were I to speak and tell of them, they would be too many to declare." NIV

God is in the miracle business! The Lord has established for himself a testimony of miraculous intervention from the beginning of time. The world was created by a word and the redemption of fallen man was initiated from the very foundation of the world (Rev. 13:8) and the flow of God’s supernatural hand reaching into the affairs of men has never stopped since. Day by day God displays both the wonders of his natural creation through such means as sunsets, mountain heights, the power of a tornado and on and on as well as His miraculous interventions that transcend the natural order of things. The word of God is filled with thousands of years of testimony declaring the glories of God and human history contains untold numbers of miracles besides. In fact it was said of Jesus that through his life alone the miracles of God are countless. John went on to write in John 21:25 “Jesus did many other things as well. If every one of them were written down, I suppose that even the whole world would not have room for the books that would be written.” We truly serve a miracle working God.
However, the story doesn’t stop there! You might ask, “How can there be more?” But I have good news for you. The things that God has prepared for your future are better than the things He has provided in your past! 1 Cor 2:9-10 Encourages us by declaring, "No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love him"- 10 but God has revealed it to us by his Spirit.” Consider the phrase “no mind has conceived what God has prepared…” Wow!!!! It is time to stop living with doubt about God’s commitment to you. It is time to stop questioning whether you will see any good from God’s hand. In Jer 29:11 the Lord strengthens His people by announcing, “I know the plans I have for you," declares the LORD, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.” God has a plan with your name on it! And, It is a good one!
Not only is there a plan with your name on it, God wants you to know that plan. In the same verse that promises that God has prepared inconceivable plans of goodness for us the promise continues by stating that even though you in your own mind cannot conceive of what God has prepared for you, you can know what He has planned for you. Paul states boldly, “but God has revealed it to us by the Spirit!” There is revelation awaiting those who will lean into the realms of the Spirit instead of leaning upon the mind of the flesh. There is provision from God for your heart! His desire is to have a people who are built up through encountering His voice in such a way that they walk with eyes for eternity instead of eyes for this life. There is great power that comes to a person who is not controlled by a temporal, earthly focus and motivation. We are taught by Paul in Col 3:2 “Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things.” There is great freedom in living for eternity! Today set your mind on the knowledge that your relationship with God is the most important thing that you have and live out of the revelation that comes from spending time in His presence.

Wednesday

Psalm 40:1-3 - May 6, 2009

Ps 40:1-3 For the director of music. Of David. A psalm.
"I waited patiently for the LORD; he turned to me and heard my cry. 2 He lifted me out of the slimy pit, out of the mud and mire; he set my feet on a rock and gave me a firm place to stand. 3 He put a new song in my mouth, a hymn of praise to our God. Many will see and fear and put their trust in the LORD." NIV


Have you ever felt like you were walking through mud? Have you ever felt stuck in a mediocre routine that you know is less than the best that the Lord has created you for? This psalm is a celebration of the Lord’s deliverance and it begins with the key to receiving from the Lord through prayer: “I waited patiently for the Lord…” When we are under pressure usually the last thing that we want to do is wait for the Lord, but… that is exactly what we need to do. David had many opportunities to deliver himself from his troubles prematurely but they always involved compromising his character. What is remarkable about his life is his complete dependence upon the Lord. He knew that as he lived patiently before the Lord he would be heard and that God would answer from heaven. David lived confident that the throne room of God was the true source of all of his needs.
When the circumstances of David’s life began to experience breakthrough David did not boast in his own great accomplishments. Instead, he turned his praise to the Lord and declared, “He lifted me… He set my feet upon the rock… He gave me a firm place to stand!” This is the fruit of patient persistence before the Lord. David did not just wait passively before the Lord. He waited with a cry from his heart ascending into heaven and when God’s deliverance came, the cry of desperation became the song of praise! Have you ever experienced God setting your feet on a solid rock? Do you know the joy of standing in a firm place… not in your circumstances but in your inner man? This is the victory of God, when my heart is lifted into a place of confident patience and bold faith the battle is won! The battle is not to persuade the Lord to move on our behalf; the struggle is to attain a heart of faith that comes boldly before God. We are commissioned to come boldly into God’s presence but when our eyes are on our circumstances boldness before God is often hard to find.
As our hearts are helped in God’s presence and the victory is won a song of praise rises from our hearts. In Ps 30:11-12 David demonstrates the nature of the transformed heart: “Thou hast turned for me my mourning into dancing: thou hast put off my sackcloth, and girded me with gladness; 12 to the end that my glory may sing praise to thee, and not be silent.” KJV As we learn to wait on the Lord in our times of need our cries of pain are met by the Lord turning our hearts and clothing us with a gladness from heaven. This is the true victory! And this victory testifies to the Lord’s greatness. People see our circumstances and then hear the voice of our praise and are moved to ask, “How can you be happy with all that you are going through?” and through our testimony God is praised. Wait on Him today until the victory of an overcoming peace and confident joy empowers you to shine for Him.

Tuesday

Psalm 39:6-11 - May 5, 2009

Ps 39:6-11 "Man is a mere phantom as he goes to and fro: He bustles about, but only in vain; he heaps up wealth, not knowing who will get it. 7 "But now, Lord, what do I look for? My hope is in you. 8 Save me from all my transgressions; do not make me the scorn of fools. 9 I was silent; I would not open my mouth, for you are the one who has done this. 10 Remove your scourge from me; I am overcome by the blow of your hand. 11 You rebuke and discipline men for their sin; you consume their wealth like a moth — each man is but a breath." NIV

If my hope is not in my riches, if the pursuit of wealth and possessions is not the goal of this life then what is? David answers this question simply and completely in one phrase: “My hope is in you!” Lasting peace and purpose in life flows out of a living relationship the God. David’s cry is for God’s deliverance form the power of his own weakness. How many times have we asked the Lord to save us from ourselves! God has provided so abundantly for His children through the new covenant that was guaranteed for us through Christ. Yet man forfeits what could be his through rejecting accountability to God. Jesus wept over Jerusalem, mourning for their stubbornness of heart. Matt 23:37 "O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing.” The light of the world was walking amongst them. God’s hand of mercy was extended towards Jerusalem but they were unwilling to humble themselves and receive the Lord of glory.
Jesus’ response to their rejection was to withdraw from them and allow them to live with the consequences of rejecting the mercy and provision of God. Matt 23:38-39 “Look, your house is left to you desolate. 39 For I tell you, you will not see me again until you say, 'Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.” They were left to themselves, to continue in their sin and deception when the very Messiah himself had been walking their streets appealing to them through His word and His miracles of healing and deliverance, with a longing from heaven to gather them to the heart of God. Imagine rejecting such grace, and yet how often do we do the same thing. God offers His intervention in our time of need through the counsels of His word calling us to a transformed life and yet we, like the people of Jerusalem, are unwilling in the hour of God’s visitation. How many times does the Lord turn away sorrowfully from one of His children, leaving the house of this one desolate and all of the while knowing the mercy that He had intended for us.
In Psalm 39 David responds to the Lord in a different spirit. His appeal to the Lord is for forgiveness and deliverance from the power of his sin. David is insightful enough to recognize that the pressing circumstances that are encroaching upon his life are the work of the Lord not the Devil. I wonder how many times we attempt to bind away circumstances from our lives that are in truth the Lord’s dealings working to bring about our repentance and transformation. David speaks of the Lord dealing with a man’s sin by consuming his wealth. Our hearts are so attached to the realm of material things. Even as Jesus said in Matt 6:19-21 "Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. 20 But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. 21 For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” When a man’s heart is bound to his possessions then to touch that area of his life is one of the quickest ways to expose his heart to the Lord’s dealings. Think of the rich young ruler who couldn’t walk away from what he owned to follow the Lord who had stirred his heart. It is time to examine the circumstances of our lives for the possibility that we have overlooked the Lord’s hand as He has reached out to discipline us and bring about needed change.

Lord give us eyes to see your merciful confrontation of our
unwilling areas through the ways that you touch the different areas of our lives.

Monday

Psalm 39:4-6 - May 4, 2009

Ps 39:4-6 "Show me, O LORD, my life's end and the number of my days; let me know how fleeting is my life. 5 You have made my days a mere handbreadth; the span of my years is as nothing before you. Each man's life is but a breath. Selah 6 Man is a mere phantom as he goes to and fro: He bustles about, but only in vain; he heaps up wealth, not knowing who will get it." NIV

Do you believe that the length of your life is in the hands of the Lord? Do you accept the fact that some things are not yours to control? David did. This psalm is such a model of a surrendered life. David acknowledges that his future is ultimately in the hands of the Lord and not his to control. There are a number of life lessons contained in these three verses. The first picture that David paints is a call to live a life of humility before the Lord. In humble submission David acknowledges that it is God who has set the number of his days and before the eternal God the length of his life is as nothing.
This understanding is the same revelation that Job received in his encounter with the Lord as the Lord confronts Job with the reminder of his own limitations, Job 38:4-21 "Where were you when I laid the earth's foundation? Tell me, if you understand. 5 Who marked off its dimensions? Surely you know! Who stretched a measuring line across it? 6 On what were its footings set, or who laid its cornerstone- 7 while the morning stars sang together and all the angels shouted for joy? 8 "Who shut up the sea behind doors when it burst forth from the womb, 9 when I made the clouds its garment and wrapped it in thick darkness, 10 when I fixed limits for it and set its doors and bars in place, 11 when I said, 'This far you may come and no farther; here is where your proud waves halt'? 12 "Have you ever given orders to the morning, or shown the dawn its place, 13 that it might take the earth by the edges and shake the wicked out of it? 14 The earth takes shape like clay under a seal; its features stand out like those of a garment. 15 The wicked are denied their light, and their upraised arm is broken. 16 "Have you journeyed to the springs of the sea or walked in the recesses of the deep? 17 Have the gates of death been shown to you? Have you seen the gates of the shadow of death? 18 Have you comprehended the vast expanses of the earth? Tell me, if you know all this. 19 "What is the way to the abode of light? And where does darkness reside? 20 Can you take them to their places? Do you know the paths to their dwellings? 21 Surely you know, for you were already born! You have lived so many years!” The years of a man’s life are as a drop in a bucket of water compared to the eternal God and we are called to live before Him in humility and submission.
The second lesson implied in these few verses of Psalm 39 is the call to steward our time. If my time is so fleeting and my days so short, if it really is given to me as a gift from God, then I am responsible to Him. In Ps. 90:12 the psalmist asks for this same revelation of his life’s days so that he may live with wisdom. Oh that we would cultivate this same sober response to the span of our lives. Many of us waste so much of our potential on that which is worthless. In Psalm 119:37 the psalmist cries out that the Lord would turn his eyes from “looking at worthless things.” In Jonah 2:8 the consequences of wasting our lives on what is worthless are revealed, "Those who cling to worthless idols forfeit the grace that could be theirs.” How much more will God do in the life of those who live diligently before Him, stewarding time as a treasure invested in us.
The third sobering reminder of this passage is the call to guard our hearts from becoming attached to the material things of this life. What revealing language David chooses as he speaks of man “bustling about” vainly “heaping up wealth.” The tendency of the heart of man is to find his identity in the things that he has accumulated and accomplished, but the point of David’s discourse is the reminder that all of these things will fade away and that every treasure will end up serving someone else because our days are numbered. Jesus confronted this stronghold in the life of the rich young ruler who was a morally upright young man but his attachment to his own possessions was binding him from truly following God with a whole heart. There is no sin in great wealth; the problem is when our possessions possess us! God entrusts His stewards with resources to accomplish His purpose and at the end of life’s journey each man will stand before Him like the servants with the talents in the parables of Jesus and be asked to give an account for how they used what they had been given to bring increase to the master’s wealth. Today examine how you are using the resources you have been asked to steward for the Lord. Have you brought a harvest for the Lord’s purposes with how you have handled both your time and your wealth? Lord teach us that we might bear good fruit!

Sunday

Psalm 39:1-3 - May 3, 2009

Ps 39:1-3 For the director of music. For Jeduthun. A psalm of David.
I said, "I will watch my ways and keep my tongue from sin; I will put a muzzle on my mouth as long as the wicked are in my presence." 2 But when I was silent and still, not even saying anything good, my anguish increased. 3 My heart grew hot within me, and as I meditated, the fire burned; then I spoke with my tongue" NIV


Are your words burning with fire!? What truly set David apart was the power of his words. The psalms of David have set the world on fire for living a life of worship. But where did this fire come from? Words on fire come from a heart on fire! David’s burning heart was a reflection of his personal decisions. David was determined to watch both his words and his ways. One of the greatest secrets to having powerful speech is to only speak that which is worth saying. James teaches the church to be slow to speak, slow to anger and quick to listen. When we are not careless with our words and that which we speak is flowing out of a heart that is living purposefully before God there is a power that flows from within to the hearts of the hearers.
Jesus spoke in such a way that the people had never heard anything like it before. Mark 1:22 records the impact of Jesus words on his listeners, “they were astonished at his doctrine: for he taught them as one that had authority…” Later after the resurrection after he had visited his disciples as they walked along the road in Luke 24:32 they are remembered for saying, “Did not our heart burn within us, while he talked with us by the way, and while he opened to us the scriptures?” Their hearts were impacted by the living words that flowed out of Jesus.
So where does this inner fire come from? David gives us a glimpse into the combustion point of his life. His heart was compelled by the contrast between the glory of God that he knew in God’s presence and the broken condition of the world around him. In silence and stillness his anguish grew… that is the burden that lies behind true passion. If our hearts have not been burdened for change we will not speak with a passion that is real. His heart grew hot as he waited in stillness before the Lord. In the place of meditation before the Lord the fire within him grew. Oh, that the church will get before God until we are burning, that we will be silent long enough to catch the burden of God and the flame of His passion.
Jesus enlarges this understanding of empowered speech throughout his teachings. In John 6:63 Jesus explains the impact of the Holy Spirit on his words when he says, “It is the spirit that quickens; the flesh profits nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life.” Jesus went into the presence of God and developed his relationship with the Holy Spirit. He lived and spoke from a place of dependence on the Father’s direction. In Jn. 8:28 he says, “I do nothing of myself; but as my Father hath taught me, I speak these things,” and again in verse 38 He declares “I speak that which I have seen with my Father.” It is time for us to go deep. It is time for us to live dependent. It is time for us to live for the will of the Father and then our words will burn like the words of Christ, imprinting heaven upon the hearts of those who hear!