Category: Devotions

FRIDAY February 14^th

Psalm 16:5

‘The LORD is my chosen portion and my cup; you hold my lot.’

 

In the previous devotion we were looking at the thought that as believers our lives are in the safest hands and as a result from Psalm 40:2 our feet have been placed upon the rock, a firm foundation and that our steps are secure.

The second of the Psalms I will take us to is Psalm 37:23-24,

‘The steps of a man are established by the LORD, when he delights in his way; though he fall, he shall not be cast headlong for the LORD upholds his hand.’

As we have come to allow the Lord to hold our lot, that is to have a strong hold of our lives, and as we come to delight in him, we can rest in knowing that he will establish our steps. He will lead us in paths of righteousness, he will direct us in the way we should go.

The third of the Psalms is from Psalm 119:133,

‘Keep steady my steps according to your promise, and let no iniquity get dominion over me.’

We have our part to play!  God has given to mankind freewill, he didn’t create man to become like a pre-programmed robot, and in Christ we have not been re-created as pre-programmed robots, we have to make it both our desire and determination to seek out the will of God and to continually ask him to keep steady our steps, to seek out the way that he wants us to go.

Psalm 119 is a wonderful psalm that speaks of the wonder of the law of God and of the need for mankind to live and walk according to the law, or as we see in verse 3 as walking in God’s ways. ‘. . . but walk in his ways!’

As we have been considering the words of the song, Jesus the very thought of thee with sweetness fills my breast, it should cause our hearts to be filled with great joy to know that in coming to know him as the Lord who is my ‘. . .’ and we fill in the blanks with so many words, we should be able to say he has become to us what it says in the words of another song:

He is my Everything

He is my ALL

He is my Everything

Both great and small

He gave his life for me

Made everything new

He is my everything

Now how about you

 

Like honey in the Rock

Sweet honey in the Rock

For he tastes like honey in the rock

Oh taste and see that the Lord is good

For he tastes like honey in the rock

THURSDAY February 13^th

Psalm 16:5

‘The LORD is my chosen portion and my cup; you hold my lot.’

 

Now as we come to this verse today, I am going to concentrate on the last four words, ‘you hold my lot’, but first remind us that it is only once we come to know the Lord Jesus Christ as our chosen portion, and our cup, that is as the one who delights and satisfies us, that we can have the confidence as we trust him to know that he has a plan for each one of us, and as we seek it and live it out, we are safe in his hands, as we seek out his good and acceptable will, he will perfect that which is in accord with his will for our lives.

‘You hold my lot’ reminds me of the words of a song,

My life is in You, Lord

My strength is in You, Lord

My hope is in You, Lord

In You, it’s in You.

My life is in You, Lord

My strength is in You, Lord

My hope is in You, Lord

In You, it’s in You.

Our lives as Christians are in the safest hands, and they are the hands of the one who was willing for nails to be hammered through them, so that we may come to know him in a personal way.

Going back to the words of the Psalms, we read in a few places some verses regarding our steps, and I want us to consider the steps that we take which should be in accordance with the will of God.

First, and we will turn to the others in the next devotion, we have from Psalm 40:2 a verse that reminds us that once we have been brought up out of the horrible pit, our steps have been made secure:

‘He drew me up from the pit of destruction, out of the miry bog, and set my feet upon a rock, making my steps secure.’

Imagine walking in a miry bog, with the feeling of being sucked in and with no hope of deliverance—that is how it was outside of Christ, but he came and through his suffering at Calvary and his being raised from the dead, he reached out to us, and as we have come to believe on him, he has lifted us, pulled us up out of the miry bog, and he has set our feet on a solid rock, on a firm and secure foundation and made our feet secure.

Today, if you are one of those who keeps going back to dip your feet into the miry bog, stop and consider how insulting it is towards the One who suffered so much to deliver you.

Love lifted me!

Love lifted me!

When nothing (When no one) else could help,

Love lifted me.

Love lifted me!

Love lifted me!

When nothing (When no one) else could help,

Love lifted me.

WEDNESDAY February 12^th

Psalm 18:2

‘The LORD is my rock and my fortress and my deliverer, my God, my rock, in whom I take refuge, my shield, and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold.’

 

Some of these words in this verse seem to be very similar, in that they are all to do with our safety in the Lord, and in our application of them in the Lord Jesus Christ. We considered deliverer yesterday and linked it to be placed upon the rock, I like the picture that is given here of the Lord being our fortress and as a result we can take refuge in him.

He is also our shield, I don’t know what kind of picture you can visualise here, but I see God like an enormous shield that is all around me protecting me from all the enemy would seek to fire at me, we read of a shield in Ephesians 6:16 where it is called the shield of faith, ‘In all circumstances take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming darts of the evil one . . .’ Notice it is THE shield not A shield, there is only one effective and true shield and it is the shield that is established upon the faith that comes in the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. There is no shield in any other faith. We can link this to 1 John 5:4 ‘For everyone who has been born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world—our faith.’ The shield of faith enables us to become overcomers in this world.

But then, as I shared recently in our family service, the Lord is also our stronghold who also has a strong hold of us, holding us tight, holding us close.

Is it not an encouragement to know using a modern phrase that God has got our back!

He has paid the ultimate price to redeem us and once he has gotten a hold on us he does not want to let us go, he wants to hold us close, he wants to protect us at all cost, he wants us to come to the place where we are daily willing to run into him, to hide in him and to be held closely by him.

Wherever you are at today, whatever the trial or the circumstances that you are going through, you are not alone, and you are not left without a defence or refuge, for God has made himself available to each one of us through the Lord Jesus Christ, not just as our Salvation, but as all that this wonderful verse reminds us, ‘The LORD is my rock and my fortress and my deliverer, my God, my rock, in whom I take refuge, my shield, and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold.’

 

Let me quote the words of the song I used a week or so ago in the family service:

 

I will sing praise, I will lift my voice.

I will sing praise, I’ve made my choice.

I will sing praise, in all I do.

I will sing praise to you.

 

No matter the storms that come my way.

No matter the trials I may face.

You promise that you would see me through

So I will trust in you

TUESDAY February 11^th

 

Psalm 18:2

‘The LORD is my rock and my fortress and my deliverer, my God, my rock, in whom I take refuge, my shield, and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold.’

 

In John 14:1, Jesus said to the disciples. ‘Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me’, (or ‘You believe in God, believe also in me’).

 

 Jesus is ensuring that the disciples understood clearly that he was equal with God, as John 1:1 has already reminded us ‘In the beginning was the Word . . . and the Word was God.’ Therefore he wants them and of course all who come to faith in him, such as you and I to understand that we can trust Jesus, and linking this thought to the verses we looked at previously from the Psalms, indicating who the Lord is and what he has become to each one of us, it means that in Jesus and through Jesus we find all we need to sustain us through this life, and not only in life but also in death, for as we see from Psalm 23 as we walk through the valley of the shadow of death the Lord will be with us.

 

We have such a wonderful Saviour!

 

Now, some of the thoughts that I will share from these verses will have already been touched upon in this series of devotions, but it does us good to be constantly reminded, for each day, our circumstances can change in the blink of an eye, but we have this wonderful assurance that Jesus doesn’t change. What he was yesterday, he still is today, and will be tomorrow and he always will be, and therefore we can trust him explicitly.

 

The Lord is my . . .’, I wonder which one springs to the forefront of your mind, because it means something extra special to you.  You have perhaps been through an experience, and it was at that time that you felt the nearness of Jesus towards you in one of those ways, such as maybe your rock in a time of trouble.

 

We all know him in every one of these ways but I think first of ‘my deliverer’.

 

We were in a horrible pit, we were helpless and hopeless, but Jesus came to deliver us, to rescue us, to lift us up from out of the horrible pit and to place our feet upon a solid rock, a firm foundation. The word pit can be used to describe where we were as sinners such as we see it in Psalm 103:4 ‘who redeems your life from the pit’,  but can also be a reference to where all sinners will go, for example in Psalm 28:1, David in crying out to the Lord says this, ‘To you, O LORD, I call; my rock, be not deaf to me, lest, if you be silent to me, I become like those who go down to the pit.’

 

The Lord is my . . ., well, the Lord is our deliverer, he has lifted us from the pit, and he will keep us from going to the pit of Hell and as a result because we know him as our Lord, we have this assurance as we read from Psalm 23 that we will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.’

MONDAY February 10^th

 

As we start this new week, we will read the references in the Psalms that use the phrase ‘The LORD is my’, so if you can,  spend some time today meditating on them, and then during this week we will consider some of them with our focus upon who Jesus is and what he has become to each of us.

 

Psalm 16:5

‘The LORD is my chosen portion and my cup; you hold my lot.’

 

Psalm 18:2

‘The LORD is my rock and my fortress and my deliverer, my God, my rock, in whom I take refuge, my shield, and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold.’

 

Psalm 23:1

‘The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want.’

 

Psalm 27:1

‘The LORD is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? The LORD is the stronghold of my life; of whom shall I be afraid?’

 

Psalm 28:7

‘The LORD is my strength and my shield; in him my heart trusts, and I am helped; my heart exults, and with my song I give thanks to him.’

 

Psalm 118:14

‘The LORD is my strength and my song; he has become my salvation.’

 

Psalm 119:57

‘The LORD is my portion; I promise to keep your words.’

 

The LORD is, Jesus is . . . my chosen portion, my cup, my rock, my fortress, my deliverer, my God, my shield, the horn of my salvation, my stronghold, my shepherd, my light, my strength, my song. And he is all of these and so much more!

 

To quote the songs I mentioned while I was speaking from Psalm 27 a few weeks ago, from the song, ‘Shout for joy and sing’, we say

 

You are my deliverer,

You are my redeemer, you are Lord,

And you are my healer,

You are my provider,

You are now my shepherd and my guide,

Jesus, Lord and King, I worship you.

 

And from the song ‘How sweet the name of Jesus sounds’

 

Jesus! My shepherd, brother, friend,

My Prophet, Priest and King,

My Lord, my life, my way, my end,

Accept the praise I bring.

FRIDAY February 7^th

 

A few weeks back on a Sunday evening I spoke from the first part of Psalm 27:1 and here I include it as our text for today:

 

Psalm 27:1

‘The LORD is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? The LORD is the stronghold of my life; of whom shall I be afraid?’

 

My apologies to those who were there that evening, it hadn’t been my intention to go down this route, but I am going to use some of what I shared on that occasion in this devotion—and a few devotions that follow as it fits in with my devotional theme, so bear with me!

 

In our previous devotion I mentioned that Jesus was the subject of the Old Testament, and especially we see it in the prophetic declarations of the prophet Isiah, and one is from Isaiah 7:14 ‘Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.’

 

When I was speaking on that Sunday evening, I suggested that because Jesus is God with us, that is he is Emmanuel, (Immanuel) then when we read verses such as our text from Psalm 27:1, as we read the words ‘The Lord is my’, we can also read it as ‘Jesus is my’.

 

And so over the next few devotions I will take us through some of these statements that are found in the Psalms, and we should get an even bigger picture concerning who Jesus is and what he as the eternal Son of God has become to each one of us.

 

I mentioned on that Sunday evening, that the words ‘The LORD is’ are good for they tell us something about who God is, but by having the word ‘MY’ added the statement become more personal. ‘The LORD is’ could speak of God as being afar off, distant, but when we say, ‘The LORD is MY’, or ‘Jesus is MY’, it speaks of the closeness of God, the nearness of God has he has come to us through his Son.

 

I also suggested that evening that if you can make the time to begin to write a list down of all that Jesus has become to you since you have come to know him as your Saviour. And I guarantee that however long the list you may write down may be, he will still be far more than we can ever imagine. He is such a wonderful Saviour.

 

We will consider some of these things as we continue next week.

 

THURSDAY February 6^th

 

Now, I have been using a lot of words beginning with S as we have been going through these devotions concerning the Lord Jesus Christ, and considering the 53^rd chapter of Isaiah which we have used over the last two devotions, and many other Old Testament Scriptures, we have another word beginning with S and it is that Jesus had been the SUBJECT of so much that had been written. Yes, as we read through the various Old Testament books with the various genres, such as that of history, praise, prophecy etc. they are all written to point us to the One who would come in the fulness of time.

 

And when you consider the matter there is no better or greater subject than this one concerning Jesus. Someone has said that the whole of Scripture has a red thread running through it, the thread of redemption. As I write today the words of a modern song have come to the forefront of my mind, ‘We speak Jesus’ and there is no greater person that we can speak about. Just as he was the subject of so much of the Old Testament and was the subject of the proclamation of the angels (Luke 2) and the apostles throughout the New Testament, so he should be from the lips of those of us who have been touched by his amazing grace.

 

I needed Jesus and I am so glad that I have come to know him, and there is absolutely no doubt that our friends, our neighbours, our communities, our nation and the whole world needs Jesus, they might not realise it, they may not even be willing to accept that they need him, but they do.

 

I haven’t given a text yet, but here it is, from Acts 4 and verses 17-20

 

‘” But in order that it may spread no further among the people, let us warn them to speak no more to anyone in this name.” So they called them and charged them not to speak or teach at all in the name of Jesus. But Peter and John answered them, “Whether it is right in the sight of God to listen to you rather than to God, you must judge, for we cannot but speak of what we have seen and heard.”’

 

The two apostles, Peter and John were being forbidden to talk about Jesus, but they knew that no one could silence them because they could not but speak about what they had seen and heard, and who or what had they seen and heard, to them the most important subject was to speak about Jesus.

 

We in the UK need to take hold of the opportunities that we have to be able to speak Jesus and here we will conclude with some of the words of the song:

 

I just wanna speak the name of Jesus

Over every heart and every mind

‘Cause I know there is peace within Your presence

I speak Jesus

I just wanna speak the name of Jesus

‘Til every dark addiction starts to break

Declaring there is hope and there is freedom

I speak Jesus

 

Shout Jesus from the mountains

Jesus in the streets

Jesus in the darkness, over every enemy

Jesus for my family

I speak the holy name

 

‘Cause Your name is power

Your name is healing

Your name is life

Break every stronghold

Shine through the shadows

Burn like a fire

 

^{Songwriters: Jesse Reeves / Dustin Smith / Abby Benton / Kristen Dutton / Carlene Prince / Raina Pratt}

^{I Speak Jesus lyrics © Integrity’s Praise! Music, All Essential Music, For Me And My House Songs}

WEDNESDAY February 5^th

 

Isaiah 53:8–12

 

‘By oppression and judgment he was taken away; and as for his generation, who considered that he was cut off out of the land of the living, stricken for the transgression of my people? And they made his grave with the wicked and with a rich man in his death, although he had done no violence, and there was no deceit in his mouth. Yet it was the will of the LORD to crush him; he has put him to grief; when his soul makes an offering for guilt, he shall see his offspring; he shall prolong his days; the will of the LORD shall prosper in his hand. Out of the anguish of his soul he shall see and be satisfied; by his knowledge shall the righteous one, my servant, make many to be accounted righteous, and he shall bear their iniquities. Therefore I will divide him a portion with the many, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong, because he poured out his soul to death and was numbered with the transgressors; yet he bore the sin of many, and makes intercession for the transgressors.’

 

Now, as we consider these verses today, you will recall that I mentioned yesterday that often these verses come under the heading of ‘The Suffering Servant’, but if we re-read the first part of verse 11 ‘Out of the anguish of his soul he shall see and be satisfied’, we see that the suffering Servant is going to be the satisfied Servant! All the awful suffering and anguish and pain was going to be worthwhile for the latter part of the same verse says ‘by his knowledge shall the righteous one, my servant, make many to be accounted righteous, and he shall bear their iniquities’.

 

He went to the Cross, he willingly suffered, because he knew that the result would be that his righteousness would be counted to all who would come to believe on him and accept him as Saviour. And I believe that as one by one, men and women come to accept the Lord Jesus Christ he is overwhelmed as it were with satisfaction, yes, when you came to faith, Jesus would have said ‘It was worth it’, when I came to faith, Jesus would have said ‘It was worth it’, it was as we read in Hebrews 12, for the joy that was set before him, that he endured the Cross, despising the shame, yes, the joy of being exalted and seated at the right hand of God, but I think even more than that was the joy of seeing men and women being saved and becoming the children of God.

 

And the more I ponder all that Jesus was willing to suffer and go through as the suffering servant to bring about my eternal redemption, the very thought of it with sweetness fills my breast, and so it should for each one of us and cause us to be full of gratitude and thanksgiving, for putting it personally, I am amazed that he should love me, I am an undeserving sinner that has been saved by his grace. His suffering has rescued me and set me on a road that leads me away from Hell and upward toward heaven. His suffering has brought me into the incredible family of God, his suffering has given me an eternal hope.

 

When with the ransomed in glory,

His face I at last shall see,

‘twill be my joy through the ages,

To sing of his love for me.

 

How marvellous! How wonderful!

And my song shall ever be,

How marvellous! How wonderful!

Is my Saviours love for me!

TUESDAY February 4^th

 

If you read the previous devotion, you will recall that I left us considering Jesus as he submitted to or surrendered to his Father’s will as he knelt and prayed in the Garden of Gethsemane. He knew at that moment in time, the immense suffering that he was about to undertake as he trod the path to Calvary to enable you and I who are creatures of time to be able to know what it is to be made into new creations who would be able to enjoy eternity in his presence.

 

Earlier in these devotions I mentioned that as Jesus read from the scroll of the prophet Isaiah in Luke 4 (verses 17-20) he would also have known what the prophet had written in what we know as Isaiah 52:13 through to the end of chapter 53, which is often given the heading, ‘The Servant’s Suffering’ or perhaps ‘The Suffering Servant’.

 

And it is there that we read the verses that so clearly prophecy or predict the way in which the One who knelt in the Garden, would eventually suffer as the Servant who became the atoning sacrifice for the sins of the world.

 

And why was he willing to suffer, John gives us a wonderful answer in his first epistle, it is found in verses 9- 10 of the fourth chapter ‘In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.’

 

Because he loved us, yes, God loved us so much, that he willingly sent his Son, and the Son loved us so much, that even while we were still sinners he willingly suffered in ways that even though we have a record of what happened in the gospels, was way beyond what we can ever imagine, his love was immense, his suffering was immense and the salvation that we receive as a result is immense.

 

So today we will have as our verses some of what the prophet Isaiah had written, 700 years before it happened concerning the suffering Servant, who has become our wonderful Saviour.

 

‘He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief; and as one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not. Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. But he was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned—every one—to his own way; and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all. He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth; like a lamb that is led to the slaughter, and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent, so he opened not his mouth’, (Isaiah 53:3-7).

 

He took my sins and my sorrows,

He made them his very own,

He bore the burden to Calvary,

And suffered and died alone.

MONDAY February 3^rd

 

I wonder if anyone has considered since the last devotion as to what the word I am going to introduce today is going to be as we continue to think about our wonderful Lord and Saviour, Jesus? You may have possibly come up with three words.

 

Well, I gave a clue that it was linked to the verses from Philippians that remind us that God has exalted the Lord Jesus Christ and given him the name which is above all names. The answer is found in the verses that precede, and it is verses 4-8

 

‘Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others. Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross’.

 

The three possible words are first, servant, but this is going to be for another devotion, the other two are similar, submission and surrender. They both are synonyms of each other, but Paul is remining us that Jesus was highly exalted because he had learned submission, he had surrendered to the will of his Father.

 

The well-known verses that we can link to this theme is from Luke 22:39-42

 

‘And he came out and went, as was his custom, to the Mount of Olives, and the disciples followed him. And when he came to the place, he said to them, “Pray that you may not enter into temptation.” And he withdrew from them about a stone’s throw, and knelt down and prayed, saying, “Father, if you are willing, remove this cup from me. Nevertheless, not my will, but yours, be done.”’

 

The verses that follow tell us that Jesus was in such anguish as he contemplated what lay ahead of him, that an angel came to strengthen him, and his sweat became like great drops of blood falling to the ground.

 

In those agonising moments, Jesus submitted himself, surrendered himself to the will and the purpose of God. He had already humbled himself in becoming a man, he further humbled himself by being obedient in going to place of death on the cross—and it was all because he loved you and me!

 

Paul says that we should have the same mind among us that Jesus had—that is we in becoming a part of the family of God also need to learn obedience through submitting and surrender ourselves to the will of God.

 

As I am typing this, I suddenly realised that the song playing in the background is a song of surrender, ‘I the Lord of land and sea’ and the chorus part says this:

 

‘Here I am Lord, is it I Lord, I have heard you calling in the night, I will go Lord, if you lead me, I will hold your people in my heart.’

 

Previously I had been listening to the song ‘When I survey the wondrous Cross’ and this also calls us to a place of surrender, ‘Love so amazing so divine, demands my soul, my life, my all’.

 

Pause for a moment and settle your mind to think of Jesus as he knelt in the garden—submitting, surrendering to his Father’s will. Think of the anguish and the agony he was going through, think of the sweat drops of blood—if that does not move us to thank him for being obedient we will consider in the next devotion of how much he willingly suffered because he loved us with an everlasting love.