Reading: Psalm 7:10-17
When troubles and frustrations fly our way, we can trust the God will protect those who are right and true. Those who rely on Him will find the shield of His protection. We can trust in Him to judge those who may cause our storms. He'll cast His anger on them until they repent and see their wrong-doings. Those who are wicked are full of nothing but trouble and spew out lies to cover their reputations, instead of coming clean and getting their act together.
If we are truly following Christ in daily obedience, or striving to obey and follow Him, we can rest assured that God will stand behind us and for us.
Reading: Matthew 8:23-9:13
Here we see how Jesus takes care of His people. Literally in a storm in one reading. This is a blatant symbol of how Jesus not only has the power to calm the storms of the sea, but also of how He has the power to calm the storms of our lives. When we see His power displayed in healing the demon- possessed men, we can understand more that Jesus can solve not only the impossible things like that, but also the most minute problems of our lives. Jesus showed compassion on the hurting and broken. Why would we think He'll leave His followers today without comfort and a way out of the storms in life? Though when those hard times come, we may feel abandoned and helpless, we need to remember that God is always there. He always teaches us and makes good from the bad. We just need to allow Him to do that work in our lives.
Reading: Genesis 21:1-23:20
God proves here that He is our ultimate Provider. He provides Abraham and Sarah with their own son, Isaac. Talk about an answer to prayer for this couple! Once Hagar and Ishmael are asked to leave, we see the storm that Hagar face in trying to keep herself and her son alive after running out of water. But we see here how God provides and gets them through their hardships; even leading Ishmael to a legacy of his own. From there we read about the battle Abraham must face in following God's instructions to sacrifice his son, Isaac. This is a test of how strong Abraham's faith is, along with how in line his priorities are. Once God sees how devoted Abraham is to following and obeying Him, He stops him and provides a ram to sacrifice instead.
When we place all our trust and faith in God alone, we can see just how magnificent His provision is, at exactly the times we need it most. We need to be in tune with what God wants from us though. We may face these storms in trying to decide God's will verses our own, but when we're in line with what God asks us to do, He'll provide and get us through.
We even see how Abraham's credibility and honest character provided him a burial place for his wife.
What storms or concerns are you facing in this new year that you need to put into God's hands? How can you take what you've learned today and really put your faith and obedience into action in staying in line with God's will?
No comments:
Post a Comment