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Daily Devotion May 7th

Thursday 7th – Isaiah 40:9-20

The heading for these verses at verse 9 in my ESV Bible says, ‘The Greatness of God.’

We considered the greatness of God in earlier devotions, for today I want to consider his greatness in the context of what it says in verse 11, ‘He will tend his flock like a shepherd; he will gather the lambs in his arms; he will carry them in his bosom, and gently lead those that are with young.’ We are back to the Lord as our Shepherd. His greatness in his gentleness.

I had got to the point of preparing the devotions for this week, I had done the ones for Sunday – Tuesday and suddenly when it came to yesterday’s devotion I had for the first time while preparing the devotions over this period of time hit a brick wall! I had two attempts at putting something together but scrapped them, but deep inside I felt it needed to be about lambs! I ended up putting my planning and prepping aside and going for a walk. The next morning, I felt an inner witness to devote the three days mentioned as yesterday to Isaiah 40 and as I went through it you’ve, probably guessed it, there it was in the chapter,  the word ‘lambs’ – ‘He will gather the lambs in his arms.’ (v11) So this is our subject for today. Believe it or not, while I was preparing this actual devotion I had an email from Iain and it was pointing me to a song he had discovered that morning it was at this point of my prepping that I decided to listen to it and guess what it was called? ‘Gentle Shepherd come and lead us for we need you to help us to find our way.’ wow, talk about a confirmation!

There are lots of beautiful things we can see in this world around us, and to me one of the most beautiful is to see a field of sheep and to look at all the lambs playing, running around and skipping together.

A happy farmer is the one who has had a successful lambing season, but every farmer or shepherd knows that during the lambing season there will always be loss, lambs that are still-born or a ewe that has died during birthing leaving orphan lambs. It then becomes the responsibility as soon as possible for the shepherd to do what he can to provide for the orphaned lamb. It could be an adoption with another ewe, or it may be to have to hand rear it, the lamb to become what we call a ‘tiddler’. Being a farmer’s son, I have been involved in this, I was never going to be a farmer, if I had had to remain on the farm it would have either have been as a maintenance worker with the machinery etc or as a shepherd. There was an inbuilt instinct in me from a youngster for the sheep, maybe that was God planting a spiritual seed in my life in preparation for being a shepherd for his flock, the Church and in particular you as the flock he has placed under my care in the present.

We often had orphan lambs which became tiddlers, they would be the lambs that we would bottle feed and during lambing season the farmhouse would become like an animal hospital as the weak, cold and starving lambs would be brought in from the cold and warmed up, wrapped in hessian sacks (sometimes in the Rayburn oven with the door left open or into an electric clothes airer that my mum had) and then fed. Often it was us the children that had the responsibility of feeding them every day. Eventually when they were strong enough, they would be placed in the barn with other lambs until time for them to go out into the field with the other sheep with their lambs. It was particularly during lambing season that you would see the gentler side of the farmer / shepherd.

Our Scripture tells us that the Lord who is our Shepherd is a gentle Shepherd, he knows those who are his sheep (Psalm 100) and he cares for us. These verses tell us that he TENDS his flock, that is he looks after our needs, he feeds us, he watches over us, he checks us over, he heals the wounds, he keeps us safe and should it be needed he lovingly corrects us. I love to picture the Scripture when it says that as a shepherd he gathers the lambs in his arms – I don’t know what you imagine here, but I see us as the sheep especially when we may be afraid, or downhearted, or even broken-hearted, and he the Shepherd stooping down to picks us up, to scoop us up into his arms and hold us tightly, close to his chest, where we can hear his heart beat. It reminds me of the well-known poem ‘Footprints’ where there seems to be only one set of footprints in the sand, and the conclusion is that in those moments I was carrying you in my arms. (poem at the end)

We have touched several times over the weeks about the Lord as Shepherd and us as his sheep. Today may we learn that we can always trust our Good Shepherd, he will never fail us or let us down, whatever our situation, he is with us, ready at a moment’s notice to pick us up and hold us close to his side.

One night I dreamed a dream.

As I was walking along the beach with my Lord.

Across the dark sky flashed scenes from my life.

For each scene, I noticed two sets of footprints in the sand,

One belonging to me and one to my Lord.

After the last scene of my life flashed before me,

I looked back at the footprints in the sand.

I noticed that at many times along the path of my life,

especially at the very lowest and saddest times,

there was only one set of footprints.

This really troubled me, so I asked the Lord about it.

“Lord, you said once I decided to follow you,

You’d walk with me all the way.

But I noticed that during the saddest and most troublesome times of my life,

there was only one set of footprints.

I don’t understand why, when I needed You the most, You would leave me.”

He whispered, “My precious child, I love you and will never leave you

Never, ever, during your trials and testings.

When you saw only one set of footprints,

It was then that I carried you.”

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Devotions

Daily Devotion April 22nd

Wednesday 22nd

Psalm 42

In this Psalm we have the narrative of an individual who it seems to use a modern phrase to be ‘down in the dumps’ spiritually. He seems to be low in spirit, we see this in verses 5 and verse 11 ‘Why are you cast down, O my soul, and why are you in turmoil within me?’

I think that we would all admit that sometime or other we have found ourselves in this place. Maybe more often than we would like to admit, we may have gone through a trying experience, we may have been faced with difficult circumstances, it may have been sickness, unemployment, feelings of rejection, the loss of someone, a marriage problem, the list could almost be endless and during those moments which seem to last for eternity we have gotten into a place of hopelessness and of feeling that it’s never going to end. Depression sets in, both an emotional and a spiritual depression and we find ourselves where the psalmist is, cast down, with an inner turmoil. In verses 9-10, the psalmist even questions the presence of God – have you been there? – maybe you are in that place at the moment – note what he says, ‘I say to God, my rock: “Why have you forgotten me?” he then gives us a little detail about what has caused his downcast soul, “Why do I go mourning because of the oppression of the enemy? As with a deadly wound in my bones, my adversaries taunt me, while they say to me all day long, “Where is your God?”’

In the middle of his turmoil, depression, whichever label we want to give it, he feels that God has forgotten him. He feels all alone, he feels trapped within himself. Possibly thinking that his whole world was going to collapse in upon him or all around him, but, there is a glimmer of hope, even though his soul is downcast, even though he feels that God has forgotten him, the glimmer of hope is there like a flickering candle burning its last bit of wick, and twice he says ‘Hope in God, for I shall again praise him, my salvation and my God.’ (verses 5 and 11). His focus was turning from his hopelessness to the certainty of God’s help.

The spark would return, the joy would return, the hopelessness would be replaced with hope again, the turmoil will be replaced with peace again, the depression will lift and his spirit would soar again, because however deep into depression he went, even though he felt he’d been forgotten by God, he still clung onto God, even if from his point of view it may only have been by his finger-tips. For God was there, God hadn’t forgotten him.

Yesterday we considered Psalm 23 and the confidence we have that the Good Shepherd will be with us as we walk through the valley of the shadow of death, can I suggest to you today, that the same Good Shepherd will also be with you if you ever have to walk through the valley of depression, and if you are walking through that valley at this moment of time, there is hope, there is a way out, keep clinging onto the Shepherd.

My intention for todays devotion was actually to deal with verses 1-3, but as you can see I’ve not done that, somehow, and I can only believe it was the prompting of the Spirit the devotion has become what it is. I have a very strong conviction that God wants to speak into someone’s life, maybe that someone is you, you are struggling in the pit of depression, understand this, God is there and he wants to lift you up and bring you out. Reach out. Instead of clinging on with the tips of your fingers, place your hand firmly in His hand, it is a strong hand, it is a hand that will not let you go, it is a hand that wants to lead you forward into all that he has planned for you. Take the psalmists words and apply it to your own life, ‘Hope in God; for I shall praise him, my salvation, my God.’

The opening verses (verses 1-4) are the psalmist’s prayer, he wants his desire for God, for the things of God and for the house of God to be re-ignited again. Sometimes it is when we take our focus off God and of who he is that we begin to lose our way. Going through the period of time that we are at present, with restrictions upon us in regard to fellowshipping together, it would be easy to lose our focus, easy to start feeling sorry for ourselves, easy to get into a routine that will be difficult to break when the restrictions are over, may each one of us, be resolute to keep our focus on God, on the things of God and with a determined desire to be found in the house of God when we are able once again to go.

I was going to originally link this Psalm to another Psalm, 63, but I will close todays devotion with the opening verses, ‘O God, you are my God; earnestly I seek you; my soul thirsts for you; my flesh faints for you, as in a dry and weary land where there is no water. So I have looked upon you in the sanctuary, beholding your power and glory.  Because your steadfast love is better than life, my lips will praise you. So I will bless you as long as I live; in your name I will lift up my hands.’

A few weeks ago, I was preparing to speak on the hands of Jesus and a song that I discovered at the time blessed me, so I will include it here as my hymn for the day. Feeling hopeless and lost? Place your hand in His hand.

Put your hand in the hand of the man

Who stilled the water

Put your hand in the hand of the man

Who calmed the sea

Take a look at yourself

And you can look at others differently

Put your hand in the hand of the man

From Galilee

When Jesus came into this world to bring salvation,

He grew up in a town with a bad reputation

And he walked among the common people who lived in galilee

And he knows all the troubles of a people like a you and a me

Put your hand

Now there’s more to the story that we can ever understand

Jesus was God in the flesh while walking this land

And he came to die and to rise again to take our fears away

So that we can live with peace and joy everyday

Unknown, Adapted Caroll Roberson CCLI 788682

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Devotions

Daily Devotion April 20th

MONDAY 20th

Psalm 8

This short Psalm ends the same way that it starts, ‘O LORD, our LORD, how majestic is your name in all the earth!’

It is a declaration of who God is – He is the LORD, ‘O LORD’, but it is also a further declaration that he is ‘OUR LORD’ and then a third declaration that is ‘name is majestic in all the earth.’

I can imagine that the psalmist David has stopped wherever he was and with whatever he was doing and looked up into the sky, maybe from a high vantage point, and then looked at all he could see around him and suddenly become overwhelmed with the splendor, majesty, grandeur and greatness of the LORD God. He says, ‘When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers; the moon and the stars, which you have set in place . . .’(v3) In a later Psalm, David declares; ‘The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims his handiwork.’ (Psalm 19:1) In seeing all that God has created, it is as if he sees God’s signature in it all, the very majestic name of God written in everything for all to see.

But then, after trying to comprehend the greatness of God in all that he has seen, imagine it, the beauty of the delicate flower, the incredible wonder of the buzzing bee, the thunderous roar of a waterfall, or gentle flowing of a stream, the incredible vastness of the ocean and the almost unbelievable expanse of the heavens on a clear night where the eye is drawn from one star after another, till if you start to count, well in no time at all you have to give up, because there are so many, he then looks at himself, and he thinks of his fellow human kind and says: ‘What is man that you are mindful of him, and the son of man that you care for him?’ (v4) The CSB puts it this way, ‘What is a human being that you remember him, a son of man, that you look after him?’ (See also Psalm 144:3-4)

When we stop and think about it, it is a very good question. In the scheme of all that God has created, in the vastness of it all, and we know that scientific technology is getting better all the time, causing man with the use of telescopes to see far further out than ever before, what is man? And secondly that God should be mindful of him or that God should care for him? It’s a big, vast universe God, surely you have got better things to do than to look after me? And the answer would come back ‘No, I care about you and I care for you and I think about you all the time.’ To re-quote a verse I used yesterday, David said in Psalm 139:17-18 ‘How precious to me are your thoughts, O God! How vast is the sum of them.’ He then continues in the next verse, ‘IF I could count them, they are more than the sand!’

Let’s pause there for a moment – as I am preparing these thoughts, I stopped myself and wondered ‘Why am I using this same verse two days in a row, how come the Holy Spirit has led me this way again?’ and this is my answer. Someone needs to hear this, someone needs to be reminded of this very thing – God cares for you, God is mindful of you, and God is thinking about you. I’m reminded of the chorus that goes; ‘I’m special because God has loved me, for he gave the best thing that he had to save me, His own Son Jesus, crucified to take the blame for all the bad things I have done.’ You are special to God – the words he spoke over Israel are words he speaks over his children today -Isaiah 43:1 ‘But now thus says the LORD, he who created you, O Jacob (REPLACE THIS WITH YOUR NAME), he who formed you, O Israel (REPLACE THIS WITH YOUR NAME): “Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name, you are mine.  In the words of Malachi 3:17 (“They shall be mine, says the LORD of hosts, in the day when I make up my treasured possession, and I will spare them as a man spares his son who serves him.) You are God’s treasured possession, the KJV says; ‘my jewel.’

What is man? If we go back to the creation story, we have the various days of creation and as we know it was on the last day, day six that God decided to create man. This is what he said, Genesis 1:26-27 ‘Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.’

Then in the following verses 28-31, ‘And God blessed them. And God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.”  And God said, “Behold, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is on the face of all the earth, and every tree with seed in its fruit. You shall have them for food. And to every beast of the earth and to every bird of the heavens and to everything that creeps on the earth, everything that has the breath of life, I have given every green plant for food.” And it was so.’

These verses indicate that the creation of man was the pinnacle or the high point of Gods creative work. Yes, the heavens and the earth were amazing, the sun and the moon and the stars, the sea and oceans, the rivers and streams, the trees and the flowers, the birds of the air, the fish of the sea and the creatures roaming on the land they were all good and worthy of magnifying the name of the LORD but after God had created man, he gave him dominion over everything, he gave him the responsibility of being the caretaker as it were of the created world all around him, and whereas everything else that God created was good, after the sixth day, when man had been formed and completed the creatives work, God declared ‘it was very good.’

Of course we know that because of the forbidden fruit being partaken of, it all went pear shaped, But although God banished the original pair out of the garden of Eden, he didn’t forget mankind, he immediately put into action the plan he had prepared before the foundation of the world to redeem man back unto himself.

And ever since that sixth day of creation, God has always been mindful of mankind, God has always cared for mankind, God has always worked for and toward mankind both with his common grace towards all and with his saving or special grace toward all who would believe. Yes, in comparison to all that we can survey, we may as individuals seem to be like a tiny spec, insignificant and unimportant, but not to God, he has loved each one of us with an everlasting love. He cares for you, he cares for me.

O Lord my God, when I in awesome wonder

Consider all the works Thy Hand hath made,

I see the stars, I hear the mighty thunder,

Thy pow’r throughout the universe displayed,

Then sings my soul, My Savior God, to Thee,

How great Thou art! How great Thou art!

Then sings my soul, My Savior God, to Thee,

How great Thou art! How great Thou art!

When through the woods  and forest glades I wander

I hear the birds sing sweetly in the trees,

When I look down from lofty mountain grandeur

And hear the brook and feel the gentle breeze,

And when I think that God His Son not sparing,

Sent him to die – I scarce can take it in,

That on the cross, my burden gladly bearing,

He bled and died to take away my sin.

When Christ shall come, with shouts of acclamation,

And take me home, what joy shall fill my heart!

Then I shall bow in humble adoration

And there proclaim, “My God, how great Thou art!”

Stuart Hine CCLI788682