Morning Devotion
February 6, 2025
Today's Bible Verse
Psalms 91:2
I will say of the Lord, He is my refuge and my fortress: my God; in him will I trust.
Today's Bible Study
In this verse, the psalmist is declaring that he will trust the Lord regardless of his circumstances. Today, we'll look at why trusting in the Lord can be difficult, why we should trust Him despite the difficulty, and why articulating our trust is so important.
Trusting in the Lord is difficult partly because He works on a different timeframe than we do. While we may want immediate results, the Lord was willing for the Israelites to wait 400 years before they returned to the Promised Land. Also, the Lord works in mysterious ways. We do not always understand how He is moving or why He allows prayers to sometimes remain unanswered.
But oh, trusting in the Lord is worth it. Over and over again He has proven to be faithful in our lives and in the world. By far, the greatest demonstration of His faithfulness is Jesus' life and resurrection. The Lord had promised that a Messiah would come. Isaiah prophesied this 800 years in advance and that the Messiah would set people free from sin and death. This is exactly what Jesus did. Jesus suffered a cruel death and paid the price of our shame that we might have life. So even if our circumstances are difficult, we know for certain that the Lord is good... He proved His goodness through Jesus.
Trusting in the Lord is difficult partly because He works on a different timeframe than we do. While we may want immediate results, the Lord was willing for the Israelites to wait 400 years before they returned to the Promised Land. Also, the Lord works in mysterious ways. We do not always understand how He is moving or why He allows prayers to sometimes remain unanswered.
But oh, trusting in the Lord is worth it. Over and over again He has proven to be faithful in our lives and in the world. By far, the greatest demonstration of His faithfulness is Jesus' life and resurrection. The Lord had promised that a Messiah would come. Isaiah prophesied this 800 years in advance and that the Messiah would set people free from sin and death. This is exactly what Jesus did. Jesus suffered a cruel death and paid the price of our shame that we might have life. So even if our circumstances are difficult, we know for certain that the Lord is good... He proved His goodness through Jesus.
When we choose to articulate that we trust in the Lord, we are training our hearts and minds to think rightly of God. The Lord is our refuge and fortress. Sometimes, especially when life hits us hard, we might feel foolish to say that we trust God, but articulating truth about His goodness gives us hope and stirs our minds to believe. When we declare aloud that we will trust in God, as the psalmist does, we're training our minds to think in accordance with the truth from the Bible. As we train ourselves to speak the truth, we will grow in our belief in that truth, and put on the trust that Christians are called to embody.
Today's Prayer
Dear Lord, you are my fortress and my stronghold. I choose to trust you. Regardless of my circumstances, I know that I have hope in you. What I am facing will not defeat my faith and it will not change the reality that you are a precious and almighty God who loves me. I love you, Jesus. In your name, amen.
If we find ourselves with a desire that nothing in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that we were made for another world.
-C.S. Lewis
God will not look you over for medals, degrees or diplomas but for scars.
-Elbert Hubbard
The Christian does not think God will love us because we are good, but that God will make us good because He loves us.
-C.S. Lewis
If you want to know what God thinks of money, just look at the people he gave it to.
-Dorothy Parker
Yesterday's Devotional
February 5, 2025
Yesterday's Bible Verse
Matthew 6:34
Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.
Yesterday's Bible Study
In this verse from the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus reminds us to think about today and not dwell on what might happen tomorrow. Each day brings its own burdens and its own strengths, and to make the most of each, we should live focusing on the day at hand.
First, let's look at what the verse is not saying. It isn't telling us not to plan for retirement, or to procrastinate on big projects, or to let laundry pile up because tomorrow doesn't matter. Rather, the verse is advising us not to worry about tomorrow, thinking with dread and fear about whatever might happen. We should trust that the Lord will provide for us tomorrow, just as He does in the present day.
It takes a huge amount of effort to focus on today and not think about tomorrow. I live in an area where tornadoes are common in the spring, and sometimes I make the mistake of checking the weather channel. Often, I'll hear about a tornado threat for a week in advance of the day it might hit. I'll find myself worrying about it for days before, even though there is nothing that I can do to prevent a tornado and no way that I can make my house any less likely to be impacted by it. If I took today's verse to heart, I would pray for the protection of my family and home, but beyond that, leave the rest in God's hands. Yes, it takes a lot of trust in the Lord not to give your anxieties airtime but that is what Jesus is telling us to do in this verse.
First, let's look at what the verse is not saying. It isn't telling us not to plan for retirement, or to procrastinate on big projects, or to let laundry pile up because tomorrow doesn't matter. Rather, the verse is advising us not to worry about tomorrow, thinking with dread and fear about whatever might happen. We should trust that the Lord will provide for us tomorrow, just as He does in the present day.
It takes a huge amount of effort to focus on today and not think about tomorrow. I live in an area where tornadoes are common in the spring, and sometimes I make the mistake of checking the weather channel. Often, I'll hear about a tornado threat for a week in advance of the day it might hit. I'll find myself worrying about it for days before, even though there is nothing that I can do to prevent a tornado and no way that I can make my house any less likely to be impacted by it. If I took today's verse to heart, I would pray for the protection of my family and home, but beyond that, leave the rest in God's hands. Yes, it takes a lot of trust in the Lord not to give your anxieties airtime but that is what Jesus is telling us to do in this verse.
The Lord wants us to depend on him every moment that we live. He will always be with us. When we are tempted to think about what might happen tomorrow, we are forgetting that the Lord has given us enough to handle today. We're overburdening ourselves with a weight that we weren't meant to carry. This is a burden that He will release us from, and that begins with surrendering to Him now, and tomorrow, and trusting that He will provide for us exactly what we need.
Yesterday's Prayer
Dear Lord, I thank you for your kindness and goodness to me. Help me not to get so caught up in worrying about tomorrow that I miss what you have for me today. I want to be a good steward of my thought life. I trust that you will provide for me every day of my life, and I rest in that thought. In Jesus' name, amen.