Seeking God's Heart (eBook)

A Devotional Journey Through the Psalms

Frederick Slicker (Autor)

eBook Download: EPUB

2016 | 1. Auflage
200 Seiten
Yorkshire Publishing (Verlag)
978-1-942451-29-7 (ISBN)

Infos

How can I know God's will for my life? How can I feel God's presence in all that I do? How can I know God personally and intimately? Seeking God's Heart will help you begin to answer these questions in your life. For more than 2,500 years, the Psalms have been a major source of inspiration and meditation for worshipers of God, the Almighty. The Psalms reflect man's ancient quest to know the characteristics of God, to understand the ways of God and to seek the heart of God. The Psalms inspire us, transform us and help us come face-to-face with God. Through the Psalms, we get to feel His presence, to sense His pleasure and to offer Him our praises and prayers. The Psalms help us come to know God in a personal and intimate way. Seeking God's Heart is a daily devotional using the Psalms as the Biblical foundation for reflection, meditation and prayer. Daily devotionals are an important act of discipline in experiencing the presence of God. Seeking God's Heart is intended to be a guide for your personal journey toward a deeper and more intimate relationship with God.

Textauszug

January 1

WE SHOULD DELIGHT IN THE LORD

Psalm 1:1-2

Blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked…. But his delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his lawhe meditates day and night.

Through meditation, we are able to come to know God better. Through prayer, we can bring our thoughts and desires to God. Through praise, we get to acknowledge who He is and how He fills our lives with joy. Meditation day and night is what the Psalmist seeks, but that is really hard to do, especially when our lives are filled with constant motion. The daily tasks of making a living and trying to lead a life for Him constantly collide with our busy schedules and get in the way of our daily meditations. Through meditation, we are able to delight in the Lord. When we choose to follow God’s will, inevitably we will find great joy in the process.

We are constantly pulled in different directions. We have obligations at work, duties to clients and customers, the needs of our families, the demands of our communities, professional training and service obligations and the pressing needs of our churches and those who need our special help. Each of these demands on our lives deserves our attention and our best efforts. Our personal quest for spiritual depth also deserves our time and attention, but sadly, our quiet time often gets pushed to the background or forgotten altogether.

Meditation with God helps bring balance to these conflicting demands. Meditation brings a sense of purpose and stability to our lives, because in mediating on God and with God, we focus our attention and spend more time with Him. We get to uncover His glory and His presence as it plays out in our daily lives.

Blessings of peace, joy and abundance are what we seek, and blessings beyond belief are what we receive, but only as we delight in obedience to God’s law and only as we meditate daily on God’s will. Despite our good intentions, we continually fall short of daily meditation on God and His law. It is our job to delight in God, to praise His holy name and to seek Him first with all we have, and God will do the rest.

Father, we confess that we do not always delight in You. We often do not seek You at all, and we do not meditate upon Your Word as we should. Forgive us for our lack of discipline, for our misdirected efforts, for our failure to meditate, pray and praise You as You deserve. Hold us close, touch our hearts, speak into our souls, grant us Your grace and bless us with Your peace. We pray in the name of Jesus, Your Son and our Savior. Amen.

 

January 2

WE SHOULD TAKE REFUGE IN THE LORD

Psalm 2:8,11-12

Ask of me, and I will make the nations your inheritance, the ends of the earth your possession…Serve the Lord with fear and rejoice with trembling…Blessed are all who take refuge in him.

We are so preoccupied with acquiring an inheritance and with taking possession of the nations that we often miss the ordinary, day-to-day blessings the Father gives us without our even asking. We spend most of our lives in pursuit of work and acquiring things, making them, selling them, buying them and using them, all in the pursuit of happiness. Our focus on stuff is essentially and fundamentally flawed if we let stuff control and dominate our lives.

The best things in life are not things at all. You never see a hearse pulling a U-Haul. We do not get to take things with us into the next life, but love, joy, friendship and peace reside with us forever through the grace of God.

All of us are concerned about our circumstances. We need another degree to get that new job. We need that promotion in order to get more money. We want that big house, so we have room for all the stuff that we have accumulated. We need that retirement fund, so we can play golf or take trips to places we have dreamed to see. These efforts are misdirected. Stuff does not satisfy. Stuff leads to more stuff, but stuff never leads to true peace, joy and happiness.

We need to seek God, not stuff, with all our body, mind, emotions, will, soul and spirit. We need to serve others as we desire to be served. We need to redirect our focus, redefine our goals and reject the constant pursuit of stuff.

Our goal is clear, and our path is straight. We are to seek the Lord first, last and always. We are to ask of Him with trust and humility. We are to serve Him with gratitude, rejoice in Him with awe and wonder and take refuge in His holy grace, and He will give us peace, rest and abundance, even to the ends of the entire earth.

Father, we confess that we spend our lives trying to make a living, when we should be totally devoted to seeking and serving You. Our days are cluttered with meetings, conferences and appointments, all in the pursuit of the mighty dollar, and our nights are troubled with fear and trembling over what tomorrow will bring. Cleanse us of our lack of trust. Choke out of us who we are and make of us the one You created us to be. Expand our desires and opportunities to know You, to serve You and to share You with others. In the name of Jesus, Your only Son. Amen.

 

January 3

GOD BESTOWS HIS GLORY UPON US

Psalm 3:1, 3

O Lord, how many are my foes!…But you are a shield around me, O Lord; you bestow glory on me and lift up my head.

All of us are faced with those people and those situations that oppose us. Some opposition comes in the form of people we know. They oppose us, so they might be promoted ahead of us. They oppose us, because they are jealous of what abundance God has given us. They oppose us in order to defeat and destroy us. They oppose us, because they believe that they are right and we are not.

We often dwell on the negative, we focus on the challenges and obstacles and we emphasize the forces against us. So often we fail to rely on God’s positive promises. Yet it is the Lord who is our comfort and strength. It is He who created all that is. It is He who fills our cups, He who shields us from our enemies, He who gives us power to engage in the battle and He who casts His peace upon us in all circumstances and situations. God even bestows His glory upon us. His gives us abundance in times of drought and despair. He uses His power for us and on our behalf. But most of all, He surrounds us with His grace and His love.

In every circumstance, in every battle and in every conflict, we are assured of victory when we rest on Him, rely upon Him, trust in Him and believe His Word. In Him, there is no defeat. In Him, there is no disappointment. In Him, there is nothing but victory. He lifts us up when we are weary, and He bestows His glory upon us in the presence of our enemies.

He is the mighty conqueror. He is the glorious victor. He is our shield and our protection. Glory be to God! Blessed be the name of the Lord, for He is worthy, He is holy, He is our source, our strength, our peace and our God.

Father, we thank You and praise You for defeating the enemies in our lives, those who are actual persons and those who are merely circumstances. We give You praise that where we go, You have already been there and prepared the way for us. We thank You that You sent Jesus to be our guide, our help, our friend and our Savior. We are overwhelmed by Your grace, overjoyed by Your presence and in awe that You know us personally. Praise be to God! In the name of Jesus we pray. Amen.

 

January 4

HEAR OUR PRAYERS, O LORD

Psalm 4:1, 7-8

Answer me…and hear my prayer…. You have filled my heart with greater joy…for you alone, O Lord, make me dwell in safety.

We seek safety and security rather than change and unexpected opportunities. We have become comfortable in the ordinary, the usual and the familiar. We are risk averse. Yet God desires that we expand our focus and our lives beyond the boundaries of the known and even beyond the boundaries of our own imagination, beyond the inconceivable expanse of His vision for our lives.

We command the Lord to “Hear me!”, “Fill me!”, “Use me!”, “Make me whole!”, when it is only His presence that we should desire, only His joy and peace that we should seek, only His grace and His love that are more than sufficient.

Yes, we want our prayers answered, and it is not wrong that we ask God for the desires of our hearts. Yes, we long to have God hear our prayers. It is good and right that we strain to find the greater joy that only God can provide. But instead of asking for our sake, we need to ask for others. Instead of asking for abundance for us, we should be asking for what is necessary and adequate to care for others. Instead of our list of demands required to meet our circumstances, we should seek God first, and His holy and perfect will for us will be given to us. If we seek only Him, God will give us more than we could ever hope for or ever need.

God has unique desires for each of us, but all of those desires can be condensed into two things: First, we need to worship Him first, last and always; and second, we need to serve others in His name.

It is God we need. It is God we seek. It is the Father we most desire. It is the Lord’s pleasure that should be our...

Produkt-Details

• Erscheint lt. Verlag: 5.2.2016
• Sprache: englisch
• Themenwelt: Geisteswissenschaften
• ISBN-10: 1-942451-29-6 / 1942451296
• ISBN-13: 978-1-942451-29-7 / 9781942451297